Angrboda's TealogAngrboda's tealog on Steepsterhttps://steepster.com/
Keemun from UnknownThis is what I'm drinking at work at the moment. It was part of a christmas gift, bought it a small local store where my parents live. Keemun in general is one of my favourite blacks and is no different.Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:06:06 -0400/teas/Keemun/863-keemun?post=1138
Strawberry from Whittard of ChelseaI got this one in a trade once with someone who had tried the Lemon tea from Whittard of Chelsea and found they didn't like it and therefore assumed they wouldn't like this either. Their loss, my gain. The very first time I smelled the dry leaves I knew without a doubt that I had found my ideal strawberry tea. It smells very sweet of strawberry, but not overly synthetic. You can see lots of bits of strawberries and strawberry leaves in the tea. The finished brew smells nicely of strawberries too, but not overwhelming the smell of the tea. The flavour is the same. It tastes primarily like tea, but with a sweet and fruity addition to it.Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:44:50 -0400/teas/Strawberry/1006-strawberry?post=1341
Tie Luo Han from TeaSpringDoesn't have much in the way of flavour at first, but if it's been allowed to sit and develop a bit it helps considerably. Floral sort of note to the flavour. Still, it's good, but it's not OMG!-good.Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:05:15 -0400/teas/Tie%20Luo%20Han/1013-tie-luo-han?post=1358
Strawberry and Kiwi from Luka Te m.m.When I bought this I wondered how it was possible to make a white fruit blend without overpowering the white tea. It is, however, entirely possible. I wouldn't say it tasted particularly fruity. Most of what I can taste is the white tea, but it's got a fruity sort of after-taste instead which I find much more pleasant than had it been a stronger more full-bodied fruit flavour.Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:48:26 -0400/teas/Strawberry%20and%20Kiwi/1128-strawberry-and-kiwi?post=1441
Silver Tips Imperial Darjeeling from MANTRA ESTUDIOThe leaves are large and pretty and the first cup is almost colourless. It grows darker as it is allowed to sit and develop. The flavour and the scent of it are very delicate just like a white tea should be, but if brewed too strong or oversteeped it becomes very bitter and nearly undrinkable.Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:22:12 -0400/teas/Silver%20Tips%20Imperial%20Darjeeling/1137-silver-tips-imperial-darjeeling?post=1462
Strawberry and Cream from Luka Te m.m.I only bought this because they were out of regular strawberry and I wanted some strawberry tea. I have a strong dislike of cream in tea (Milk! ALWAYS milk! Never cream! Milk!) but I was desperate enough to try it on the promise that it was supposedly sweet and summerly. The leaves smell lovely but all I can taste in the cup is the black tea and the cream. No berries of any kind. It's drinkable, but I won't be buying this again.Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:32:32 -0400/teas/Strawberry%20and%20Cream/1151-strawberry-and-cream?post=1490
Green Cactus from Den Lille TebutikThis is one of my favourite greens with additives. It's got a really sweet flavour. Hard to describe it exactly, and this is going to sound really strange, but it's sort of like Dr. Pepper only not. This particular batch that I've got though is getting on in age, so it's turned a little dull, but it's still enjoyable.Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:57:28 -0400/teas/Green%20Cactus/1160-green-cactus?post=1506
Irish Blend from Kusmi TeaI had this on the train home from my parents'. I had a 1st class ticket which means access to free coffee and tea. I've had a sampler of Kusmi teabags before and found the brand largely overrated. I haven't changed my mind. It's better than your average cheap teabags, but it doesn't really live up to what people have said of it. Even this one, that is merely a blend of Darjeeling and Assam has a synthetic sort of hint to it. Could be from being stored right next to some bags with a jasmine tea in it, but with each bag sealed in an air tight foil satchel I kind of doubt it.
I don't know whether to give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. I don't hate it, but I wouldn't buy it for myself.Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:58:14 -0400/teas/Irish%20Blend/1227-irish-blend?post=1631
Princess Blend from Luka Te m.m.This is now sold as Princess Blend, but when I bought it was called the Isabella Blend, named after the youngest of the danish princesses (turning 2 later this month). It's a nice, fairly sweet tea, and I'm even able, with some concentration, to find the vanilla and raspberry notes. They're very subtle though, I think. It's a pretty girly sort of tea.Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:35:49 -0400/teas/Princess%20Blend/1248-princess-blend?post=1690
90s Zou Pu-erh Brick from TeaSpringOne of the reasons I like shopping at Teaspring is the bonus points you get for each purchase. This is a sample sized piece of the brick bought for those bonus points. I don't drink a lot of Pu-ehr, but when I do I tend to like it. The colour of this one is bright reddish brown and the aroma is spicy and so strong that you can smell it already when pouring a cup. No need to get your nose anywhere near the cup for it actually. The flavour doesn't quite live up to the aroma, though. You expect something strong, but it isn't. The flavour is mostly there in the after-taste. It's still good though.Sun, 19 Apr 2009 06:10:40 -0400/teas/90s%20Zou%20Pu-erh%20Brick/1462-90s-zou-pu-erh-brick?post=2038
Almond Tea from Den Lille TebutikWhen smelling the leaves or the steeped tea, you're not left in the slightest bit of doubt as to what marzipan is made of. When they say it's a sweet tea, they're not kidding! Show me a person who takes this tea with sweetener and I'll show you a person with a sugar problem. It's not unbearably sweet though, and the actual flavour is more black tea with a streak of almond than it's the unbearable sweetness that you get from the scent. It's actually much better than expected, but unlikely to be a tea I'll be drinking large amounts of. One small pot now and then should suffice.Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:53:02 -0400/teas/Almond%20Tea/1514-almond-tea?post=2139
Peppermint Gunpowder from CustomIn a fit of experimental inspiration I took a pot of generic Gunpowder and added a smidge of peppermint to it. The result is... interesting. Minty. It's sufficiently drinkable that I'm not going to pour it out, but I wouldn't really recommend the combination. Not as served hot anyway. I suspect it would work a lot better on ice.Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:30:33 -0400/teas/Peppermint%20Gunpowder/1582-peppermint-gunpowder?post=2278
Silver Tips Imperial Darjeeling from MANTRA ESTUDIOThu, 23 Apr 2009 10:02:03 -0400/teas/Silver%20Tips%20Imperial%20Darjeeling/1137-silver-tips-imperial-darjeeling?post=2395
Bouquet of Flowers No. 108 from Kusmi TeaI had this on the train home from my parents' last night and once more came to the conclusion that Kusmi is indeed drinkable but otherwise overrated. This one isn't as perfumed as other teas of the brand that I've tried, but it's not particularly memorable either.
This review however must be taken with the understanding that making tea on the train involved hot water from a thermos rather than freshly boiled, so the steeping process was far from ideal. I think I might just stick to coffee on the train from now on.Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:19:07 -0400/teas/Bouquet%20of%20Flowers%20No.%20108/592-bouquet-of-flowers-no-108?post=2581
Lemon from Whittard of ChelseaI have proclaimed the strawberry tea of this brand my ideal strawberry tea. I'm not sure if I can do the same with the lemon tea. I mean it's not like I was expecting something else, because I haven't had better. But I haven't really had worse either. I keep wanting to log this one, but in the last two days I've had three pots of it and I just end up drinking it and forgetting to log or even think about what I'd write about it. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I've decided that it must be good. If it was bad, surely it would be easy to log, right?d
It's a pleasant tea, not so lemony as to be sour, but not un-fruity either. I think it has a pretty good balance considering the fruit, and I'm toying with the idea of blending it with the strawberry tea. On it's own I think it would also be great as an iced tea. Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:51:31 -0400/teas/Lemon/1731-lemon?post=2624
Chinese Green Tea from Second CupFairly average bagged green tea. But it tastes like a better quality than the average supermarket-available brands around these partsThu, 30 Apr 2009 14:58:39 -0400/teas/Chinese%20Green%20Tea/1850-chinese-green-tea?post=2949
90s Zou Pu-erh Brick from TeaSpringThe only Pu-ehr I've got and it was sample-sized to begin with! This is not okay, I need to be tea shopping soon. Except then I'll be laughed at by friends and family for already having more teas than I can remember.
Unfortunately it's unlikely that I'll be able to get more of this particular one. Not very old for a pu-ehr, but very mild in flavour, I think. I'd like to try something older than this.Sun, 03 May 2009 11:36:49 -0400/teas/90s%20Zou%20Pu-erh%20Brick/1462-90s-zou-pu-erh-brick?post=3102
Jiu Long Pao from TeaSpringAt first I brewed it in the traditional western way with a proper tea pot. I found it a mild flavour, a bit delicate. Pleasant, but not something that sticks out as exceptionally good. It's a pretty good every day tea.
Then I got the mad idea to try and brew it gong fu style in a gaiwan. I've never really managed to get the hang of gaiwans. I always spill or burn myself or both. I used the last of my leaves to do this. Unfortunately I failed to remember to do this with caution as it is now severely over-steeped, bitter and undrinkable. First steeping has therefore been disposed of. Second (very short!) steeping is much much better. The flavour is noticably stronger than when brewed in a teapot and more complex. There's a sort of nutty finish to it, I think. It definitely wins by being brewed this way.
I suppose what I really need is a crash course in gong fu and use of gaiwan.Wed, 06 May 2009 05:07:41 -0400/teas/Jiu%20Long%20Pao/1986-jiu-long-pao?post=3292
Tie Luo Han from TeaSpringI've written about this one before, as having not a huge amount of flavour to it, but it helps if it's allowed to sit for a little while.
This morning I have tried making it in a gaiwan gong fu style (or an approximate of gong fu, since I'm not sure I'm doing it entirely right). The aroma is strong and spicy when brewed this way, and the flavour is too. I haven't quite got the hang of steeping it, so it's a little oversteeped and slightly bitter, but not so much that you can't tell what it's supposed to be like. Strong, spicy and nutty. It's actually a much better tea when brewed this way.Fri, 08 May 2009 02:25:02 -0400/teas/Tie%20Luo%20Han/1013-tie-luo-han?post=3432
Ying De Hong from TeaSpringWhen I first bought this, I reviewed it as disappointing. It didn't live up to the expectations that I had. Now that those have been put away I can better drink it for its own sake and if I were to review it now, I'd give it a much better score than I did then.
It's light in colour and sweet in aroma. It's not one of those very bold and strong teas that benefit from a bit of milk. It has a sort of delicate flavour without actually being all that delicate at all. Very hard to explain this!
All in all, it's a very nice tea, and it's just the right one for me right now, trying to wake up from a very long nap with a slight headache.Fri, 08 May 2009 09:33:29 -0400/teas/Ying%20De%20Hong/2030-ying-de-hong?post=3439
Peppermint from UnknownThis is normally one of those things that I only drink if I'm ill and real tea tastes weird, or to experimentally blend wtih other teas. Here is a different sort of tip for you. You know that cocoa powder for making hot cocoa? Just a spoonful in a cup, add boiling water, stir and you've got hot cocoa. Make a pot of peppermint herbal and use that to make your hot cocoa instead of regular boiling water. It's very delicious, like drinking melted After Eight, except without the icky creamSun, 10 May 2009 08:23:51 -0400/teas/Peppermint/2057-peppermint?post=3515
Gunpowder from UnknownThis was given to me as a gift once in a clear plastic bag with no details as to origins of any kind. I wasn't expecting grandness and it is indeed pretty mainstream. It could have been a whole lot worse. Just had a sort of craving for green tea last night and it's lasted into this morning.Sat, 23 May 2009 02:25:04 -0400/teas/Gunpowder/2312-gunpowder?post=4340
Elderblossom from PickwickI consider Pickwick a sort of average quality when it comes to bagged tea. You can get better but you can definitely also get worse. Much worse. This is a pretty old one, because I tend to forget that I have it, but if you consider the level of quality it's pretty good. It's not an outstanding tea by any definition of the word, but it's definitely drinkable, refreshing and the elderblossom flavour is there without being synthetic.
Let's not talk about the appearance though because it's very unclear and murky to look at, although this might have something to do with the bags being several years old and probably past their prime.
I think this would work nicely for an iced tea. Perhaps with a dash of something sweet and fruity.Sun, 24 May 2009 11:29:56 -0400/teas/Elderblossom/2319-elderblossom?post=4365
Strawberry and Lemon from CustomBoth the strawberry and the lemon tea used were from Whittard of Chelsea. Their strawberry tea is like my ideal strawberry tea. It's JUST right. I've been toying with the idea of this combination for a while. The sweet of the strawberry and the tart of the lemon.
I used 1 part strawberry tea and 1 part lemon tea, and unfortunately the result wasn't nearly as yummy as I had expected. Oh it was definitely still good and still drinkable, but it was like the two kinds of fruit equalled each other out instead of complementing each other. I haven't given up though. I believe it's a question of working out the right ratio. Next time I'll try 2 parts strawberry to 1 part lemon and see how that works.Mon, 25 May 2009 14:02:46 -0400/teas/Strawberry%20and%20Lemon/2332-strawberry-and-lemon?post=4401
Guanabana from Adagio TeasI had never heard of this before, but apparently it's some sort of tropical fruit that we others can't get because the fruit doesn't transport very well.
The dry leaves smell weird. Sort of fruity and bitter at the same time. Like a very old orange. At this point I'm sceptic. Very sceptic.
Colour is nice and golden and the scent is something familiar that I can't quite place. It's not mouldy oranges anymore anyway.
The taste is.... strange. Fruity. Adagio suggests something akin to candied strawberry and pineapple. I can't really 'find' those notes but at the same time I don't really disagree either. I can't tell when I don't know how the fruit is supposed to taste.
I like it. I don't think I'll stock up on it once I've got through the sample, but I like it.Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:55:13 -0400/teas/Guanabana/86-guanabana?post=4879
Hazelnut from Adagio TeasThe leaves smell sort of like I would imagine Nutella concentrate would smell like if it existed. Already before actually tasting it, I'm finding myself considering an experiment involving chocolate milk.
The colour's nicely golden-red and you can really smell the nuts in the scent.
It's not at all as sweet as I had expected. It's very nutty and very delicious actually. I'm definitely going to conduct some experiments with sugar, milk and chocolate milk, and I might buy this tea again.Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:11:42 -0400/teas/Hazelnut/87-hazelnut?post=4883
Raspberry from Adagio TeasLeaves smell very sweet and fruity. Very nice.
The colour strikes me a kind of boring light golden brown. It doesn't look bad, it just looks very average.
It doesn't taste very fruity. I can find the raspberry, but it's rather subtle and not enormously sweet. I like that, and I think it might benefit from a little sugar. I'll have to experiment wtih that.Sun, 07 Jun 2009 01:54:02 -0400/teas/Raspberry/101-raspberry?post=4900
Vanilla from Adagio TeasThe leaves smell very sweet and when steeped the scent of vanilla is still strong and full.
It's easy to find the vanilla in the flavour too, but if you're looking for the sweet sort of vanilla sugar flavour that you get in ice creams or desserts you're going to get disappointed. This isn't so overwhelmingly sweet as that, but it's definitely there and it's definitely vanilla.
I saw another reviewer here suggest mixing it with fruity teas. I'll have to try that.Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:02:35 -0400/teas/Vanilla/106-vanilla?post=5012
Apricot from Adagio TeasI love apricots. But while this tea definitely smells and tastes like apricots, idk... It just reminds me of your average southern fruits sort of tea. Maybe the ones I've had have just been overwhelmingly apricot-y but no matter what, nothing about this tea really surprised me.
It's a great tea, very delicious, just not one that really stands out to me. I'm not sure if it's one I'll purchase again or not. Maybe if the mood strikes me.Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:21:06 -0400/teas/Apricot/69-apricot?post=5025
Cinnamon from Adagio TeasOh yes, this is very definitely cinnamon. The leaves absolutely reek of cinnamon far overpowering any particular scent of tea. After steeping it more or less the same story. I can pick up a hint of tea in the scent but mostly it's just cinnamon. For some reason I'm also getting a strong note of honey.
It doesn't taste as overly cinnamon-y as it smells, thankfully. There actually seems to be very little cinnamon in the flavour or perhaps it's because the strong aroma has made me expect more.
I'm undecided about whether or not I like it. I dislike the scent, but it's drinkable. It would have been more suitable around christmas time though. Buying more of this is unlikely.Sun, 14 Jun 2009 08:39:06 -0400/teas/Cinnamon/78-cinnamon?post=5120
Chocolate from Adagio TeasForgot about it and seriously oversteeped it. It doesn't seem to have had a negative impact on the tea though, since it's neither bitter nor overly strong. It's got a very smooth and very nice flavour of chocolate without being dominated by sweetness, and I can recommend drinking it plain or add a little milk to the cup and give it a sort of chocolate milk quality. (pretty thin chocolate milk, but hey, you can't have everything)
Also, try brewing it with a pinch of mint, for an After Eight sort of variation.Sun, 21 Jun 2009 06:15:43 -0400/teas/Chocolate/75-chocolate?post=5367
Taurus (The Zodiac Series) from Adagio TeasI was given this tea as a freebie when I made my first order with Adagio. They asked me for my birthday and gave me a sample of the corrosponding tea.
I like peaches as a fruit, but so far I haven't been all that fond of it in tea, so I've put of trying it for a while. If I had checked beforehand instead of afterwards, I might have told them a fake birthday in order to get a different tin.
The leaves are large and you can clearly see both the white and the oolong. It smells very much like peach though, so I'm a bit sceptic and I've only made a small pot.
After steeping it smells more like oolong than it does of peach. It's still peachy but it's just an underlying note rather than the overwhelmingness of the dry leaves, and I'm pleased to find that although it does taste of peaches and it's not a tea I'll ever be especially fond of, I think, it's not nearly as bad as I had feared. The oolong and white peony definitely makes up for the peach.
I'll probably not buy more of this, but I am likely to eventually try some of the other zodiac blends, if for nothing else than collecting the tins.) It's a great idea for a gift for someone, definitely.Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:51:06 -0400/teas/Taurus%20(The%20Zodiac%20Series)/523-taurus-the-zodiac-series?post=5928
Guanabana from Adagio TeasSat, 18 Jul 2009 16:53:14 -0400/teas/Guanabana/86-guanabana?post=6174
Guanabana from Adagio TeasWhile I wasn't completely convinced of this when I first reviewed it, I have an addendum to make.
It is absolutely splendid iced!Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:53:38 -0400/teas/Guanabana/86-guanabana?post=6175
Passionfruit from Adagio TeasThe smell isn't overly fruity, but you can tell there's definitely fruit in it. It's discreet and unless you're looking for it, you might miss it, but it's there.
The taste is very fruity, but not unpleasantly so. Passionfruit has a rather special flavour I think, and it's coming through nicely in the tea. Not too fond of passionfruit as a fruit, but the flavour suits the tea and vice versa. I like this tea a lot better than I like the fruit.Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:01:10 -0400/teas/Passionfruit/96-passionfruit?post=7442
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sI just received this in the post yesterday (along with a GORGEOUS book on tea and the history of the 175 years old teashop in Copenhagen with lots of lovely pictures in it). I couldn't resist ordering some of this. I'm a sucker for a berry tea, and I haven't come across very many flavoured oolongs before.
The dry leaves smelled divine. I couldn't stop smelling the bag last night. The steeped tea smells very fruity, but I still feel like I can pick up the scent of the tea underneath.
It doesn't taste very fruity. Mostly it's tea and with a note of something not-tea that must be the berries. The danish description on their site says it's also good on ice and I'm very inclined to believe it. I'll have to try that some time.
All in all, I'm happy with this.Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:11:17 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=11477
Nepal Top Oolong from A C Perch'sTurns out Nepal has a tea production. Who knew? I didn't. Apparently Nepal produces quite a lot of tea, mainly black and green, and the tea from the easternmost regions are very similar to Darjeeling (and has in fact been sold as such due to the Darjeeling name being so valuable).
Quite by coincidence when looking for something else, I came across a Nepal Top Oolong at A C Perch's in Copenhagen which was definitely something I wanted to try. Fairly expensive with nearly 100 kr per 100 grams. This translates to about €13.4 or $19.2 for 100 grams, which was the smallest quantity they would allow me to buy through their webshop.
The leaves are relatively dark and look nicely twirled. There isn't really a lot of scent to them though.
The steeped tea is very light and yellowish in colour for an oolong and it smells sweet and somewhat nutty. The scent of it promises so much more than it actually delivers. It's a very mild flavour and almost no aftertaste at all, which makes it a nice tea, but it gets boring pretty quickly.
As it develops there is a little more aftertaste, but still not very much. It wasn't until the last few stewed dregs that I really got anything of the sort, and by that time it was turning slightly bitter.
It's definitely not a good morning tea, it's much too delicate in flavour for that. I'd take it for a tea break later in the day and probably not while eating something, since that would overpower what flavour it has.
It's a nice enough tea, but it's just not interesting enough for me to get more of. Especially not at this price.Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:07:07 -0400/teas/Nepal%20Top%20Oolong/4585-nepal-top-oolong?post=11521
Japanese Emperor Blend from A C Perch'sI'm very fond of Genmaicha. It's one of my favourite greens. This one is from A. C. Perch's in Copenhagen and a completely unexpected addition to the cupboard. I bought a book from there, which I think I mentioned in my previous post. It's partly about tea in general and partly about the history of the shop. Apparently, as I discovered when I got it, when ordering the book on the publishing day they added a tin of Genmaicha. Freebie tea! I'm a fan. :D
It smells lovely. A delicate fragrance that smells more of tea than it does of rice. It's been a while since I've had any Genmaicha, so it might be that my memory is playing tricks on me, but it looks to me like there are more unpuffed rice in this one. I'm rather amused by the fact that the puffed rice are actually green too in this one. Never seen that before. It looks funny. :)
The steeped tea smells more or less like the dry leaves. Delicate and mild and more tea-like than rice-like. I like that. It rather pale in colour too.
The flavour seems very mild to me. It's been a while since I've had any green, or white for that matter, so my tongue is probably temporarily ruined by black, oolong and pu-ehr. After a few sips, I stareted getting over that, though, and I started picking up a little more flavour. At first it's mostly just the flavour of the tea, and then when swallowing the rice comes into play. It can't under any circumstances be allowed to over-steep though, because it turns bitter really quickly.
I like this Genmaicha a lot, and I'm very likely to come back for more. And I'm not just saying that because it was free and came in a nice tin. Win!
Also, it feels absolutely wonderful for my mysteriously sore throat. Double win! Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:58:07 -0400/teas/Japanese%20Emperor%20Blend/4620-japanese-emperor-blend?post=11821
Organic Rooibos from Den Lille TebutikI don't really like rooibos. But my throat hurts and real tea tastes weird. I'm drinking this sweetened with a bit of honey which is good for the throat and also helps mask the flavour a bit.Sun, 13 Sep 2009 04:29:05 -0400/teas/Organic%20Rooibos/4669-organic-rooibos?post=12143
Earl Grey Green from Pickwickthis would be the sort of tea I get at my parents' house unless I bring my own. Teabags of comparatively okay quality. I haven't in teh past been all that impressed with the green teas of this brand, but I can think of stuff that are significantly worse quality.
I've never had a green earl grey before and I'm not really sure what to expect. It's steeping right now so I haven't tasted it yet.
It doesn't really smell at all like earl grey as I know it, but I can definitely pick up the citrus.
Tastewise it's a bit of an O.o experience. I could have sworn I picked up a hint of chamomile! It's drinkable, sure, but I don't think it's a flavour I'm feeling inclined to go seeking out. There is of course the possibility that it has become perfumed by other teas as it came from a variety sampler pack.
It's just that I have a very fixed idea when I think 'earl grey'. And this is not it. This isn't even remotely anything I consider earl grey-ish. Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:16:46 -0400/teas/Earl%20Grey%20Green/4828-earl-grey-green?post=12623
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sI've already reviewed this tea earlier and I'm having some now because it's bloody cold around these parts tonight!
I just wanted to say: Comments! Comments on Steepster! YAY! *tosses confetti*Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:45:33 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=12897
Apricot from Adagio TeasThis seemed like an autumny sort of tea. It's a clear, but cold day here in Denmark, I got out of work early and I currently have the coldest fingers south of the polar circle! I thought this was the closest thing I had to something that would fit the weather and season.
Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:03:05 -0400/teas/Apricot/69-apricot?post=14837
House Blend from Den Lille TebutikThis is what I'm drinking at work at the moment. Currently they're messing with the ceiling and the ventilation system so it's impossible to work. In the meantime I figured I could go and talk about this tea.
It's the house blend of a small local tea shop near where I live. It consists of Panyong, Keemun and Yunnan black tea with mallow flowers and is supposedly without or low in tannins.
I've had a sample of this ages ago which I liked but never bought more of. I'm pretty certain it didn't have the mallow flowers then, but I can't really be certain. (actually I think I might have an ancient review of it somewhere, but I don't have access to it at the moment)
It's a pleasant blend with a nice floral but not too much so aroma. It's a good work-tea and I imagine it would be quite nice with a bit of milk as well as without. I don't really agree with the no tannins, though. I feel like I'm definitely picking up some tannins in this.
However, I learned a few weeks ago that it's not a particularly good tea for brewing in the morning and bringing on the train in the travelling mug. For some reason there I didn't like it much at all. I expect it was too much of it at one time since this is not necessarily a tea where you have to drink gallons.
One, maybe two cups is pleasant, but enough.
(I hope this is getting a green thumbs up sign. When I move the cursor away from the icon it turns into the red thumbs down... It's supposed to be a green one for liking it!)Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:20:13 -0400/teas/House%20Blend/5425-house-blend?post=14906
Chocolate from Adagio Teasbut with a twist!
I'm f-f-f-f-f-freezing! So I wanted a tea with a warming sort of flavour. You know chocolate with chili in it, right?
So I had this chocolate tea and I had this here chili powder and I thought, "hmmmmm.... Self, it's worth a try."
I made a small strong pot of chocolate tea and added half a teaspoon of chili, stirred and steeped.
The result was... this very red sort of tea, seriously it's almost as red as a pu-ehr. It smells like a spicy spaghetti sauce and the flavour has gone really sweet in an unpleasant sort of way, with the hotness of the chili scratching my esophagus all the way down.
It's not very pleasant and it's not even warming. It's not impossible that I used too much chili, but I don't really feel inclined to experiment further with this.
I'm not going to drink the rest of the pot, but at least I've learned something. That in itself is a good thing, right?Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:23:43 -0400/teas/Chocolate/75-chocolate?post=14936
Vanilla from Adagio Teasbut with a twist!
Following yesterday's chocolate chili fail, I got lots of suggestions for stuff to try instead.
Vanilla with a bit of peppermint was one of them.
I'd never have thought of this combination on my own, in spite, bizzarely, of having a pack of very nice chewing gum with this exact combination in my bag right now. I'd just never considered 'translating' it to tea.
It is, in tea, very nice! Both vanilla and peppermint have a natural sweetness, and their flavours surprisingly suit each other, making the tea sort of sweet but not.
I suspect it's a combination that would also work very well on ice.Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:17:24 -0400/teas/Vanilla/106-vanilla?post=14969
Raspberry from Adagio Teas
I'm having it now in spite of it hardly being a particularly autumny tea, simply because I found the tin in my tea cabinet and realised I'd quite forgotten I had it.
I see I've reviewed this one before and theorised that it might benefit from a little bit of sugar. So we'll try it with a little bit of sugar this time.
Before, I said I could easily find the raspberry in the aroma of the dry leaves, but not really in the actual tea. I still agree with myself on that. I can find something nice and fruity, but not something directly recognisable as raspberry.
Trying it with a little cane sugar, but not too much, is nice and sweet and enhances the fruityness. It just doesn't make it any more raspberry-ish.
Another tea that would be very nice on ice though, so since I made a small pot, I'll drink this cup now and pour the other one on ice for later.Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:38:54 -0400/teas/Raspberry/101-raspberry?post=15020
Hazelnut from Adagio TeasYes, it's me again with a word of advice. Don't carry a full teapot seconds after you put lotion on your hands. Wasted a good deal of this when the handle slipped through my fingers leaving a very warm teapot in the pouring position.
Anyway, since the raspberry wasn't all that autumny and I put half of it in the fridge for later, I found something else. Nuts. That's very autumny, although this particular tea is sweet enough to probably be more of a dessert tea.
Doesn't matter though. Not when my main reason for choosing this particular one right now admittedly had little to do with autumny-ness and much to do with lack-of-cake-in-the-flat-ness...Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:54:47 -0400/teas/Hazelnut/87-hazelnut?post=15030
Peppermint from UnknownI don't really care much for mint flavours on their own. My colleagues drink this mint/liquorice root concoction that they claim is delicious. I disagree. You don't even get the two flavours at the same time. First it's minty mint and then the liquorice root doesn't come through until you swallow, which to me seems like trying to have two different sorts of tisanes at the same time. Like they couldn't decide if they wanted one or the other. But that's not what I'm having now so I'll shut up about it.
As mentioned I don't really care much for mint. I have it so I can mix it into other stuff.
But then, on days like these where I've apparently eaten something or other that I shouldn't have, it's the only sort of tea or approximation of tea* that I can stomach. The very idea of anything else, even my normal favourites just make me go bleeeeargh!
So I'm having plain peppermint infusion now. I'm not enjoying it really, but it's the only thing I want.
*Herbal infusions are of course NOT tea. Herbal infusions never HAVE been tea. Herbal infusions never WILL be tea. Herbal infusions have never even as much as seen a tea bush and are therefore no more tea than cocoa is coffee.Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:10:34 -0400/teas/Peppermint/2057-peppermint?post=15141
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sI seem to have my innards back under control (*fingers crossed*) and I have also managed, it seems, to get rid of that godawful bad taste in my mouth. Good thing, that, because I'm sick and tired of peppermint infusion!
I'm sticking my neck out and trying some real tea. Hopefully I won't regret it later.
This one was my first ever flavoured oolong (that I can remember), and it's quickly become a favourite. It was lucky I found it because I was buying something else from the site at the time and just randomly started clicking around to see what else they had.
It smells absolutely divine and it tastes equally as lovely. I like it better and better every time I have some of it. It's just what I need for a post-sick comfort tea.Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:45:22 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=15222
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sYeah this again. Nothing to say about really. But I had to enter a tea in order to make a post so... *shrug*
Am I the only one whose Dashboard page is acting up?
The ONLY updates I'm getting is what people liked and commented on. No reviews at all since some time yesterday.
And that's not like you all to be so active with comments and stuff and logging nothing!
What's up???
(Is anybody even going to see this...?)Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:27:53 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=15285
Silver Tips Imperial Darjeeling from MANTRA ESTUDIOI fought long and hard against this tea. I'd just had the raspberry oolong and I knew that one more pot of tea so quickly after would result in over-active kidneys. But you can't stop inspiration, can you?
This tea was given to me as a gift along with two other teas from this estate. They're organically grown and bought (I think) directly from the estate and then sent to me from India. Which of course meant I had to pay blood in taxes and customs and fees and what not (and let's not even get started on the problem with the courier company and the half package number!!!)
The white leaves are big and gorgeous to look at. If you were to ask me how I make it, how many leaves I use to a pot, I'd have to just say, "Plenty." My tea scoop was so not made for this size leaves! A scoop could be a decent amount of leave or it could be just a couple lying on the wrong angle of the scoop. No pot is ever the same when it comes to this.
It makes a very nice tea, though. Depending on how much it is steeped it's got a good strong flavour. It's not one of those white teas where you sit and search desperately for just a smidge of taste. This has got almost as much as an average green tea.
It coats the tongue quite nicely although it doesn't really linger. There is some small aftertaste that seems to go on forever, but it's not very strong.
It's surprisingly suitable for the season. I would never in a million years have thought that a white tea could be anything but spring-y!
ETA: Do not under any circumstances allow it to oversteep. If you brew like I do, with the leaves loose in the pot, decant or drink quickly because it does get quite bitter.Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:29:12 -0400/teas/Silver%20Tips%20Imperial%20Darjeeling/1137-silver-tips-imperial-darjeeling?post=15297
Pu Ti Cha from TeaSpringI never thought I'd ever actually drink this tea. I mean just read the description. It's sanctified! It's speshul! It's... It's... It's... !!!
It's enormously expensive, is what it is. 9 grams = $5.10 The 108 g box = $ 55.60
But how could I not get a packet? Sanctified tea! Speshul! I might never get the chance to own something unique like this again.
I'm not sure what possessed me to make it today. Maybe it should have been saved for a special occasion like a good bottle of champagne? Thing is though, I know from experience that if you save a really expensive bottle of champagne for a special occasion then you'll never get around to tasting it because you never know if there might be an occasion that was even more special. And when you finally DO open the champagne, it's gone dull. This happened to my parents with the bottle of Dom Perignon they bought at the winery when we were on holiday in France. Talk about a disappointment. (Yes, it's possible it wasn't stored correctly. But still.) I wasn't old enough to like wine yet when I was that age, so I at least was spared.
Anyway, I didn't want to not have this special tea anymore, but I didn't want aforementioned fate to befall it either. That would have been worse, so I've made a small pot of it now, using half the leaves, and I'm going to wring as many steeps out of it as I can.
The dry leaves are large and very dark brown, almost black. They don't seem to have all that much aroma to speak of, but it is there. Delicate and I seem to be picking up a note of something chocolatey. When steeped the chocolate note is less pronounced but it's still there, underneath some more sweetly floral notes. It smells very nice!
The flavour is also a delicate one. I pretty much agree with Teaspring's description of flowery sweetness. Possibly more flowery than sweet, but it's close enough. Not much in the way of aftertaste initially, but again, I find myself agreeing with Teaspring's description. It sort of builds up as you drink.
I find I'm liking this a lot. I could most definitely see myself stocking up on this tea, although I would probably go for an ordinary Da Hong Pao and not this sanctified stuff that costs an ungodly amount of money.
But it is still kinda fun to own it. :)Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:09:06 -0400/teas/Pu%20Ti%20Cha/5632-pu-ti-cha?post=15463
Pu Ti Cha from TeaSpring2nd Steep: Still good. Tastes a bit used but it's okay.
3rd Steep: Weaker. Definitely. It's all light yellow now, sort of like a white tea that has been allowed to stand still and develop a bit. It's drinkable still, but if this was the first contact you had with it, you so wouldn't come back for seconds. Not sure a 4th steep is worth the effort, but I'll attempt it anyway.
4th Steep. Yeah. Coloured water. Useless.
Apparently two steeps is the ideal. Three only if you're desperate. Four if... well, never four actually.Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:17:17 -0400/teas/Pu%20Ti%20Cha/5632-pu-ti-cha?post=15520
Ying De Hong from TeaSpringI'd forgotten I had this. As in... I hadn't really forgotten as such, I just knew there was very little left and I didn't think it would be enough for a pot so I didn't bother with it until yesterday when I looked in the tin and got a surprise. I've made a small pot of it now and there should be enough for another small pot.
For a black tea the leaves seem a bit on the large side and they smell nice and sweet. For having been forgotten for the better part of six months and purchased who knows how much earlier than that, they have definitely retained aroma.
It's relatively light in colour and while the dry leaves had a very good aroma the tea seems to have little. It's there and it's very similar to the 'dry' aroma, but it's not as pronounced.
I've logged it before as a tea that disappointed me a little. While good, it didn't live up to my expectations of it. I described it as sort of delicate but not really. I'm not sure what I meant with that... Today I would say it's fairly delicate, period.
It's possible it's lost a bit of flavour, but I'm quite happy with my collection of tins that are all air-tight and light-proof and I would claim that I'm storing my correctly, so I don't really think it would have lost all that much. I think it's just supposed to be this way.
So, delicate. Yes. Not nearly as sweet as the smell of it would have you believe and not much in the way of after taste. Even somewhat oversteeped (10 minutes or so ahem) I didn't really get a whole lost of flavour out of it. If the flavour intensity could be doubled or trippled, I'd like it a lot. I'd say it was a nice and smooth tea.
Apart from not really sure what I actually meant the last time I logged it, I think I still agree with myself that I had too high expectations of it. I'm finding it a bit boring and probably wouldn't try it again. So I'm neutral on this one.Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:23:45 -0400/teas/Ying%20De%20Hong/2030-ying-de-hong?post=15653
White Pomegranate from FredstedOh, I like this new rating system. I'll try to get around to fixing my old reviews. Eventually. I especially like the smiley for teas we don't like, it's cute. :D The steeping time and water temperature are nice touches too, although less relevant for me since most of my tea is brewed sort of on the fly. I can't really figure out why they have thumbs up/thumbs down symbols though, but I expect that's something that'll get fixed eventually. (May I suggest a drop for water temperature and a clock for steeping time?)
Anyway, this is a backlog from yesterday morning. I had this in my travel mug on the train going to work. It was given to me as a present from a colleague who had seen it. I'd never seen this variation before, but the brand is one you can find in most danish grocery shops and supermarkets. They deal mainly in loose leaf as far as I've noticed. I haven't seen much in bags from them, except chamomile and such. Quality-wise it's a bit... I wouldn't exactly say it's an awesome quality but it's not any worse than any other supermarket brand.
I think I oversteeped it a little because the tea had a sort of roughness to it that I don't think should be present in a white tea. It wasn't bitter and it didn't taste stewed at all, it was just kind of... off.
As for the pomegranate... Oh, is that what it was? I couldn't really find the pomegranate flavour at all. On the whole the tea was rather dry and I don't know if that was the tea being dry or if it was the way pomegranates have a dry sort of flavour.
This all doesn't sound like a tea that I found particularly enjoyable, does it? But strangely enough it is. It was well suited for a morning travel tea. It's just a question of finding the right purpose for it.Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:28:20 -0400/teas/White%20Pomegranate/5727-white-pomegranate?post=15922
Strawberry and Kiwi from Luka Te m.m.I've been modifying all my previously logged teas and I got inspired. Inspired, but not able to make any sort of decision, so I closed my eyes, stuck my hand in the tea cabinet and picked a tin at random. And this is what I "won".
Not a bad pick. Another tea I'd forgotten I still had.
I noticed today that the leaves are broken. I'd say it's because I'm at the bottom of the tin, but when I bought it, it was taken out of the middle-ish of the tin in the shop, so I don't think tin-bottom is the reason. There are too many broken leaves for the middle of a big tin for that, if you know what I mean. It just goes to prove the fact that teas with additives and flavouring is probably a lower quality tea than what is used for the plain teas.
Also, I managed to oversteep it just a little bit, because I momentarily forgot about it. It didn't turn bitter though, just full flavoured. To be honest it kind of tastes more green than white to me and the fruit additives are nothing special.
But I'm chalking all that up to slight oversteeping and having acquired a snot-nose and therefore somewhat reduced sense of taste. I stand by it being an otherwise lovely tea.Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:14:25 -0400/teas/Strawberry%20and%20Kiwi/1128-strawberry-and-kiwi?post=15952
Gunpowder from UnknownWHOOOOOOAAAAHHH!!!
Last night's insomnia is finally catching up with me. I had maybe a total of four hours sleep and have still been, to use a danish and directly translated expression, fresh as a fish all day. In spite, I might add, of having acquired the sniffles.
It's now 9pm and I'm beginning to suspect that tonight I'll sleep well. Although I'm not really ready for bed yet. I'm not finished being awake for today. And I wanted a good cup of tea first too.
So why this kinda mediocre generic one? I don't know. I've seen a lot of people review green lately (and pu-ehr but sadly I don't have any of that) and what can I say? You lot are inspiring.
It's really dark. Okay, so I was busy writing the intro on this post and nearly forgot, so it's probably just a teensy bit oversteeped but it's still good. I kinda wish I could remember what I said about it when I reviewed it earlier because I hate ending up contradicting myself. It makes me look like a dork who can't make up her mind. (And I don't want anybody to find out the horrible truth)
Today though, I'm finding that I still agree with my previous rating. It's a nice tea, but not super-duper awesome. The first Gunpowder I ever had was from Chaplon and it was also iirc the first green I ever had (that didn't come in a cheap bag). I just remember that one as better than this.
OMG! I just realised I also have dinner leftovers heating in the oven! Man, imsonmia really IS catching up with me.
These oven potatoes are a bit bland, possibly they should have been heated just little lon-WAIT! I'm supposed to be talking about the tea!
Anyway, the tea. It's pleasant. I think it would be a good one for my travel mug in the mornings (gosh, I love that thing! How did I go for so long without?). I'm picking up a kind of... Well, there's definitely a note there, I just can't really describe it. It's not nutty or salty (Salty? Really? I've never found a salty note in a tea! Where do you lot get that from?) or grassy or leafy or anything. It's just sort of... green. Yeah, it has a green flavour.
I'm getting nowhere with this. I'm finishing my tea and my meal and going to bed. Clearly, since I also wrote 'imsonmia' up there, it's the only sensible thing to do.Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:00:55 -0400/teas/Gunpowder/2312-gunpowder?post=16109
Duan Wu Jie from ChaplonWow, just like one can post while drunk for some potientially hilarious and cringe-worthy result, one can do the same while sleep deprived. But probably shouldn't. I swear I was only drinking TEA! O.o Anyway, as predicted I slept like a rock last night. This morning I'm still sleepy and in bad need of tea.
And we're continuing in the theme of teas I forgot I had. This one was actually a shame to forget. It's the last I've got of it and it's the only flowering tea I've got at the moment. It's the tea that prompted me to buy a godawful ugly clear cheap as dirt plastic teapot a while back, so I could see what was going on while steeping. This isn't a recent picture at all, but it's the same tea.
Picture: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/MixL4_NVJrzPfQ_PbE3TTQ?feat=directlink
I don't know if the light in the picture is off or if I steeped it longer before taking the picture back then, but it's not really quite as dark as it looks like in the picture. Same sort of shade, but lighter.
I must admit I forgot to sniff it before pouring water on it, but after steeping and decanting it smells rather a lot like... boiled broccoli. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I like broccoli. And with a little butter in the water while boiling, yum.
The tea itself possible has an aroma. My nose is only partly closed up, but I'm still having difficulties picking up smell. If I close my eyes and concentrate I can pick up a sweet floral sort of smell which probably comes from the osmanthus flowers inside the bud. It doesn't smell perfumed though, it's just sort of there.
There isn't really all that much in the way of flavour. I've taken several sips trying to figure out what it tastes like, but I'm getting very little. There is zero tail on this. No after taste what so ever. Some experimenting with slurping and generally bad table manners can provoke a little bit of after taste which sort of reminds me a bit of liquorice root, but if you just take a normal sip there's nothing.
All show, no flavour. It IS pretty to look at though.Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:06:43 -0400/teas/Duan%20Wu%20Jie/5770-duan-wu-jie?post=16140
Blueberry from Adagio TeasFirst the media was all over the blueberry, proclaiming it the healthiest food ever and claiming that it could do practically anything from curing the common cold to granting eternal life. Then the media was all over the story of how the blueberry had been completely overrated health-wise and how it wasn't even remotely as healthy as everyone had thought and people were all up in arms over how they had 'wasted' money and energy on eating all those blueberries that apparently had absolutely no value.
Erm, excuse me? Just because it's not miracle-food doesn't mean it's not healthy. It's fruit. Therefore it is healthy. And also, they still taste lovely. So exactly what the problem was, I have no idea.
Me, I have never ever met a blueberry that I didn't like. (Except if they've gone mouldy) Therefore it is not only puzzling, it's downright alarming and weird that this sample tin looks like it's never even been opened before! I must have somehow missed it when I tried all the other sample tins (I bought it as part of the sampler set).
I can find the blueberries in the scent of both the dry leaves and steeped tea. It's there, it's easy find, it smells natural and it's not overwhelming.
The tea tastes nice and sweet. Fruity, but subtle. It's like I'm getting black tea and then the blueberry is a sort of afterthought. The weird thing is that while I earlier proclaimed the strawberry tea from Whittard's of Chelsea my ideal strawberry tea because I could actually taste real natural strawberry, you would think that I would find this one somewhat bland.
But the blueberry sort of builds up as I drink and the more I drink the more I can taste the blueberry. And I like that. I wouldn't say no to a blueberry tea that just said PA-SHAM! and then there was natural blueberry flavour all over the place, but this is quite nice too. It tastes very well-balanced.
*EDIT*
I've read the other reviews on this now and WOW!!! O.o I've had the exact opposite experience from everybody else. Others have found it a strong blueberry flavour while I found it a bit more subtle. I'll have to try this again as soon as I'm snot-free, I think. And buy some blueberries to remind myself of the exact flavour.Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:07:46 -0400/teas/Blueberry/72-blueberry?post=16165
Blueberry from Adagio TeasI think my tongue must be recovering.
I tried a second steep of this yesterday and then I thought the blueberry flavour was as dominant as everybody else said it would be. Then I made another pot today (to wash down the icky rooibos) and thought that was pretty heavy on the blueberry too. Encouraged by yesterday's success, I'm trying a resteep of that again now.
It's weird for me though. I've never had much luck with resteeping black tea before.
I think I'm getting close to making this my ideal blueberry tea, if it hadn't been for the fact that it's the only one I've ever had, so I can't really compare with anything.
The European Adagio store has a very limited selection though, and that one order I got from Adagio was definitely on the extravagant side, so it's not something we're going to repeat a lot. If ever, in spite of the good experience I've had with it.Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:34:59 -0500/teas/Blueberry/72-blueberry?post=16219
Green Cactus from Den Lille TebutikBacklogging. I've had this one for a long time, it's one of the teas that have been forgotten during a long period of time where greens didn't really interest me much. It's one of those green ones that get an almost neon-like colour and you wonder if there might have radio-active waste involved in making it. It's really old though, and the flavour has faded rather a lot, especially the cactus flavour.
But it was awesome when it was fresh. Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:40:03 -0500/teas/Green%20Cactus/1160-green-cactus?post=16239
Chai-cino from BaressoThis one comes with a bit of a story. Prepare yourself for a lengthy post. Fingers on scroll-buttons.
I was a scout when I was a child. At one point when I was around 9-11 or so, we had these two pretty alternative individuals as leaders. Two younger men, who seemed to be brought up on the belief that sweets=evil and if it came from the Far East it was Good by definition. This is why, whenever we had any sort of celebration of sorts, like before holiday breaks or the last time before christmas or what have you, we had chai.
I had never heard about it before, and I didn't have the slightest clue that it was something to do with tea. And back then I wouldn't have cared either. All I remember about it was this strangely coloured spicy fluid that was just about drinkable, all the while wondering what the heck was suddenly so wrong with hot cocoa! So I was biased against chai at a fairly early age.
Many many years later I started getting interested in tea and one day I purchased a chai (Tengla chai, from Chaplon) to see if it was really so horrible as I had remembered it and also out of curiosity about the fact that there are as many recipies for chai as there are people in the world, just about. Oh, I remember it well. There were instructions for how to make it with milk and what not. I didn't like it one bit. Couldn't get it down. There was something or other in it that made it impossible for me to swallow without making a face and got rid of the rest of it in the first and the best swap that came along. Having shown people the list of ingredients it had in it, I have been told that the thing I didn't like was likely ginger.
Fast forward to this past saturday. There's a really great ice cream shop near where I live. They make a load of different flavours, some fairly unusual (it's the only place, for example, that I've ever seen a plum sorbet. Which by the way is delicious) and you never quite now what they have to choose from on any given day. This past saturday they had one called chai latte. I don't much care for chai, but I like tea a lot, so I'm enough of a dork that I had to try that one. There was just NO WAY I'd be able to walk away from it ever.
Turns out chai turned to ice cream was rather nice. Surprisingly nice. Nice enough that I could totally buy it again if I saw it there another time. It made me think that possibly it was time to give chai another chance.
So today, when going home from work, I went into Baresso and got a small chai-cino. I've seen people log chai latte or some such from Starbucks and I assume this is pretty much the same deal. They make it like a cafe latte (or in this case, like a cappucino) only instead of the espresso shot, they use this chai mix. I just got a small one, in case of extreme dislike. I've tried looking it up on their website and it would appear that the contents of said chai mix is a closely guarded secret. Can't say I'm really surprised there.
They asked me, "do you want cinnamon on top?"
I dithered a bit on this and finally answered, "yes please, but not too much."
This, apparently, was not a problem. Except, I saw his colleague make it and her definition of 'not too much cinnamon' was about three times my definition of same. I would have stopped her, but I hadn't realised yet at the time that it was my order.
It was very very very VERY sweet. Sweet and fat. I'm glad I only got the small one, because I don't think I'd be able to finish the large one. And I'm honestly not usually all that fat-frightened. You'd be amazed at the amount of cake with whipped cream I'm capable of consuming with utmost pleasure.
The contents of the chai mix being a state secret, I tried to decipher the flavour myself. There was cinnamon, definitely. The lot she had shaken on top was pretty overwhelming, but I'm certain there was cinnamon in the chai mix itself too. Also vanilla. And definitely sugar. These were most obvious flavours. I also picked up a note of something that I suspect might have been anise and something that was possibly cloves. Rather surprisingly I couldn't find anything in the flavour that reminded me all that much of cardamom, but I expect it was probably hiding underneath all that cinnamon.
I liked it. I wouldn't say I loved it, but it was drinkable. Definitely more so than my previous encounters, and I'm not completely turned off the idea of experimenting a bit the concept, depending on the list of ingredients in any given chai. The chai-cino from Baresso is also available on ice, blended with ice cubes. Considering how sweet and fat the taste was, I think that might actually be the way it would work the best.Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:26:21 -0500/teas/Chai-cino/5798-chai-cino?post=16288
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch'sI haven't logged this one before??? WHUT???
I likes me a good Lapsang. Don't get me wrong there. But the lack of logging (ha! say that ten times fast!) might have something to do with the fact that I bought this one primarily to give my boyfriend when he's here and secondarily for myself.
Right now though, I'm having the hardest time focusing on NaNo and I need a bit of a kick in the rear. Caffeine me. My green semi-spree is not going to cut it here. I know the amount of caffeine is the same, but the black tea just feels like it has more. Also this place, with the introduction of comments and liking and interaction, has became bloody addictive! Just the other day I discovered that on the front page that you get to when you're not logged in, there are featured posts and featured users if you scroll down! I'm a featured user, apparently! It made me go WEEEEEE!!!! and immediately add all the other featured users to my follow list. You lot are all to blame if I don't reach the 50K this year, I swear. Either that or I'll start counting words on tea posts and include them.
The leaves smell all nice and smokey and with a hint of tobacco, which is something I've just recently learned to pay attention to in aroma. I get inspired when I see how you others describe these hard-to-describe things. The steeped tea is less smokey in scent and it has an underlying note of something sweet. I want to say caramel but I'm not really sure that's the best description for it. Definitely tobacco too. Now that I've noticed, it's really clear.
I think I've understeeped it a bit because I got impatient, but I made it good and strong with more leaves than usual. The flavour doesn't have so much of the smoky flavour in it, but I expect the next cup with be better on that aspect. I think I might be getting the 'pepper' though. A sort of prickly flavour at the very back of my mouth like black pepper. But again, it might be because I used more leaves. This may not have been the most ideal brew, but it's one of my black favourites, and aforementioned boyfriend is a good excuse to keep stocked up on it.
Right. I have my caffeine kick now and I need to get back to my pretense at novel writing. I'm going to take 15 concentrated minutes of writing and then I can slack off for a couple of minutes more. (This doesn't sound like much, but it totally works. A short spurt of concentration, a couple of minutes break. Easy to over-look. Not so scary. And if you disregard all typos you can get a decent amount of words out in 15 minutes.)
I'm posting this at 6.28 pm my time. If you see any activity from me at all before fifteen minutes have passed, come by and kick my butt.Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:05:47 -0500/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=16305
White Fruit Salad from CustomBacklogged. I had this this morning. It's what you get when you don't really have enough of the white tea with kiwi and strawberry and you got inspired by a fellow Steeper the other day just add something else to it. So this is half white tea with kiwi and strawberry and half white tea with pomegranate.
The former was once quite nice but has faded a little. The latter have never been more than a bit better than mediocre and has never actually really tasted like pomegranate all that much. Obviously, what could I call this other than 'fruit salad'?
It was nice enough, but heavily dominated by the strawberry/kiwi half. It's not something that I'm heartbroken over not being able to make more of, but it was quite nice for the travel mug on the train.Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:52:33 -0500/teas/White%20Fruit%20Salad/5838-white-fruit-salad?post=16419
Earl Grey from TwiningsAlso backlogged. This is what I had this afternoon with the boyfriend. You may regard the following post as a collaboration.
Apparently these bags are getting a wee bit on in age, most likely, and haven't been stored all that strictly according to what is best for the tea.
I could definitely pick up a citrus-y flavour, although it reminded me a bit more of lemon than of anything else. Something acidic, definitely, thought the boyfriend. We settled on citric acid.
The tea itself was rather bland. After a short while when it had developed a bit, read: steeped a little bit longer, it developed a little more character although not very much.
It did bring on the question of 'astringency', though. WTF is that? I've searched high and low for a proper easily understandable explanation of what this is supposed to taste like. I know it's one of them 'official technical terms', but it has just never ever been a word that I have associated with any sort of flavour.
On the contrary, I work in a hospital lab, and when we talk about 'stringency' it has something to do with the environtment in which a given test is conducted being EXACTLY identical each time. Temperature and reaction times and such things. 'Astringency' sounds like the opposite of this and in the lab it wouldn't really be all that good. It's just the first thought that pops into my head, and it's really confusing when talking flavour.
Hence, it's really difficult for me to wrap my head around it not only being a sort of flavour, but also something good. I know that it has something to do with how tannins affect the mucus membranes of the tongue and such. But still.
Anyway, to make a short story long, we decided that this particular sensation that we found in it must be what people meant when they talked about astringency. I described it as something that could be mistaken for bitterness and the boyfriend, apparently having more imagination than me, said slightly like soap but not. After some consideration the soap was the conclusion we went with.
And then the boyfriend said he would award it 3 out of 5 chainsaws, which I thought on a 1-100 scale would translate to 60. And then he haggled me up to 65 on the grounds that chainsaws are cooler.
(It may take a couple of tries to make the slider hit 65 exactly. Bear with me if I have to edit a few times.)Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:57:40 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/1565-earl-grey?post=16420
Japanese Emperor Blend from A C Perch'sI'm in a green mood this morning. A lot of healthy stuff comes in the shade of green. That's why call them greens. :)
I was originally amused by this one. I'd never seen a genmaicha before where puffed rice were all coloured green. I thought it looked hilarious, but figured it might have been done for the decorational value. Next, it surprised me by being very sensitive to steeping. If you brew with the leaves floating loose in the pot like I do, it MUST be decanted after steeping, because it will turn ridiculously bitter if left to its own devices.
Over on LJ, though, a resourceful person known as Iguanahey looked into it a bit and found that it was actually a variation of Genmaicha called 'Uji Genmaicha', in which a measure of matcha was added to the usual mix of sencha and rice. This would explain the mildness of flavour and the sensitivity to steeping.
I think I prefer the 'usual' Genmaicha that I had before, but this is really really nice too, and I'm dreading running out.
I think I should have let the water cool a bit more before brewing today. The rice of course have a toasted flavour, but it seems a bit more burned than usual this morning. Eh well. That's what you get when you don't have a thermometer and go by gut (and memory. Many's the time where I've had to boil new water because I'd forgotten the kettle and it had gone way too cold) when brewing green and white.Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:24:40 -0500/teas/Japanese%20Emperor%20Blend/4620-japanese-emperor-blend?post=16471
Ceylon Pekoe from Den Lille TebutikAnother tea I've never logged. WTF? I thought since it's such a relatively long time since I shopped tea (and I mean really shopped through!) that I could have sworn all my loose had been logged at least once.
This is my reward for having written concentratedly for 15 minutes. NaNo wordcount total is now 9356 words. I'm 'racing' one of my writing buddies though, a fun little game we've had for years, and she was hot on my heels this morning. I was only 21 words ahead! O.o
Thank heavens for wednesdays! I'm part time employed so I have wednesdays off and although I was a bit annoyed at the position being a part time one when I started five years ago, I have come to love and cherish my wednesdays and I'm not going to ask for more hours until I'm forced.
Anyway, I'm taking (another) tea break. Double win when it's a previously unlogged one. I ought to just drink it while doing another 15 minutes and let the review be the reward. But there's a limit to how much discipline I can muster at any given moment.
It's a good solid black, this, originally bought to drink at work, but I ended up bringing a different one instead. It has a nice reddish colour and not all that much in the way of aroma. It's quite mild, almost fleeting and I had to sort of search for it. It's nice once you find it though. A bit surprising in a black, I find.
Especially compared to the flavour. I brewed it a bit too strong. Wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing when adding the leaves and used too many for the size of pot chosen. Which is weird, frankly, because this small one with the farm animals on it has been my preferred pot for quite a while. My head must have been full of witches and caves and wordcounts and such while preparing. Anyway, it turned a bit bitter because of the strength but underneath it there is a lot of that thing which I have finally learned to recognise as 'astringency'. Although, with the lab work in my background, the word still have some completely weird associations for me.
It's a shame I used too many leaves, because it's really pretty much all I can taste in this batch. I'm giving it a higher rating though, because I know from previous experience that if one pays attention to what one is doing, it's better than this.Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:07:11 -0500/teas/Ceylon%20Pekoe/5847-ceylon-pekoe?post=16483
Almond Tea from Den Lille TebutikHyrulehippie inspired me and you can blame her for the fact that I'm logging my third tea today. Or maybe I should just change my name to Spamrboda instead.
Anyway, I've listed this one as black (because it is) and fruit because it's not fruit but it's not a plain black either. See my dilemma?
It's very sweet with the almonds and it has big almond chunks in it. You can smell marzipan from miles away just when pouring the water on. This tea is totally a dessert tea and I really ought to wait and have it after I've eaten dinner. But it's slow food tonight and I can't wait that long!Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:54:53 -0500/teas/Almond%20Tea/1514-almond-tea?post=16532
House Blend from Den Lille TebutikBacklogging. Still drinking this one at work. It was particularly good today after first a meeting with the other lab that are being moved in with us. That's going to be interesting. The sort of thing that even though it's super-frustrating while it's happening, it would be a shame to miss out on, because it'll be a great laugh afterwards. Right now, though, we're looking at a heck of a lot of confusion.
And then that's followed by another meeting to do with pay regulation and who's turn it is to get an add-on and how the negotiations for that are conducted between the hospital management and the union spokespeople. Dry and complicated stuff and likely irrelevant to me, because I'm pretty sure I'm not getting anything this year. I got some last year, so it can't be my turn again, even though my immediate leader has 'nominated' me. (Not that I'd complain, mind!) Very dry and complicated stuff, most of which went completely over my head.
All in all, getting back downstairs to my lunch and a big cup of this tea = heaven on earth. I still stand by my first review of this taste-wise. I just thought that the absolute relief it was to get it today was worth logging. Just for that alone.Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:41:08 -0500/teas/House%20Blend/5425-house-blend?post=16641
Vanilla from Adagio TeasWake up, self. Look alive. Have only just done barely 300 words on NaNoWriMo today. As previously mentioned work was particularly tiring today. I hate meetings, I do. I much prefer to just zombie about in the lab and get the daily specimens out of the way.
I need to get some more words down, just half an hour more of writing would be acceptable.
So we took a black one because blacks always feel like they have more caffeine in them (even if they don't really) and I went for this one, because I felt like something flavoured. One of my extravagant Adagio teas. I wish I could afford to shop there regularly. (I've seen a cucumber(!!!) thing among others that I'm absolutely desperate to try!)
It's sweet without actually being sweet-sweet. It sort of tastes like vanilla smells instead of tasting OF vanilla. Hard to explain, but I've found that I rather like it a lot.
I'm still carrying around some tentative chai-inspiration from the chai-cino experiment of the other day, so I've tried a cup with a bit of milk. Not a lot, just exactly enough to cover the bottom of the cup (mind you, my current cup have a fairly wide bottom (*snicker*) and it's not really working. Possibly it should have had a bit more milk, because somehow it's like the watery-ness of the tea is all the more obvious. I think it's because of the colour. You expect something with milky viscosity and don't get it. It's odd and sort of distracts the mind so you forget to pay attention to the flavour.
So, closing my eyes and taking another sip. Weirdly, this actually does help on the viscosity issue! It's all in your mind, apparently. I wouldn't say the milk really brings the best out in the tea here. On the contrary, the milk seems to get a kind of semi-sour sort of note to it. You know like milk that hasn't actually gone off but has lost the sweetness and has just started to taste of fridge. I have to say that I'm a little disappointed that it doesn't work with milk. It sounds like something that would have been lovely with a bit of milk.Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:47:48 -0500/teas/Vanilla/106-vanilla?post=16659
Vanilla Almond from CustomGoodmorning Steepster.
Continuing on the almond pandemic we've had around the site lately, after I went to bed last night and just on the verge of sleeping, this combination popped into my head.
Usually I have noticed a trend of preferring green and white in my travel mug in the morning, but today I wanted to try this, so black it was.
I took half and half (just about) of Adagio's Vanilla black tea and the black almond tea from my local shop, Den Lille Tebutik (they've changed their name since, though, due to having been sold, so now I'm debating whether or not to edit the teas I've logged from there).
It worked really well. The two flavours suited each other and the vanilla countered some of the enormous sweetness of the almond and making it less of a dessert tea. I really liked this combination and will have to see if aforementioned local shop have a vanilla tea so I can try to recreate it.Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:48:14 -0500/teas/Vanilla%20Almond/5890-vanilla-almond?post=16699
Chai-cino from BaressoHAH! It really IS an almond pandemic. :D Everybody's drinking almond tea.
Backlogged ever so slightly. Got another one of these to go this afternoon when going home from work. I know I'm supposed to be in stingy-mode and I am really being careful about saving money, but I was allowed this partly to celebrate that I have all of next week off (yay holiday!) and because I had collected nine stamps so it was free anyway. :)
I made sure this time to get it without anything sprinkled, sprayed, dumped or whatever on top in the hopes that it wouldn't be drowning in cinnamon. Turns out the extremely cinnamon-y flavour the last time wasn't really because of all the cinnamon they put on top. It just IS very cinnamon-y. I could still pick up vanilla and sugar too, and I'm still uncertain about anise, cloves and cardamom. Now that I'm home I've been in the kitchen sniffing and tasting a few of my spices. Now I'm also thinking allspice, but again, not sure. The only thing I could tell for certain was that there was something sweet in it that wasn't cinnamon-sweet, vanilla-sweet or sugar-sweet. I just can't figure out what sort of sweetness it might have been.
Also, I briefly had an association to do with oranges. Like... I really thought I ought to be able to find orange, but couldn't. Odd.
Still not really sold on this here chai-concept. But you can't say I'm not giving it a chance.Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:29:16 -0500/teas/Chai-cino/5798-chai-cino?post=16716
Hazelnut from Adagio TeasGoodmorning Steepster.
After all these almonds, I feel almost treacherous for having chosen a different nut this morning.
I probably ought to have logged this one as a blend but I had already pulled it up on Steepster when I decided on a whim to add the little twist. What this actually is, is two thirds hazelnut black form Adagio and one third chocolate black form Adagio. After the almond vanilla success, I guess I just felt sort of inspired. :)
Also, I've had my eye on this hazelnut tea for a while in a combination with just a little bit of chocolate milk. I'm guessing it might turn into something Nutella-ish. Which would be AWESOME!
The smell is great! Nutty and chocolaty! I can't decide if I should have added a little more chocolate or if it was just the right amount. I'm leaning towards just the right amount. It's not something that's particularly sweet, it's got a sort of dark flavour and it's very autumny.
Obviously I'm trying a cup with a bit of milk too. Just enough to cover the bottom of this (admittedly pretty wide-bottomed) cup and the result is a bit of a disappointment. The flavours of the hazelnut and the chocolate are mildened by the milk to the point of almost disappearing.
It was good without milk. Not so much with. Lesson learned, although it's come as rather a bit of a surprise for me!Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:13:23 -0500/teas/Hazelnut/87-hazelnut?post=16786
Mango from Bentley'sI have two large tins in my kitchen in which I stuff various samples of stuff that are too small to be put in proper tin or I don't otherwise know what to do with. Consequently the contents of these tins are frequently forgotten about. I had a rummage through them because that Stockholm blend thing that Luthien had was inspiring me and I wanted one of those 'big' blends with lots of stuff in it instead of these simpler things that I normally go for for a change. I found some lemon grass, honeysuckle flowers and some red rosebuds that I didn't even know I had! Also a sample from previously mentioned local shop that I'm not sure why I got in the first place. It doesn't really look like something that I would expect to like all that much... Anyway, this one is a teabag that I got through a trade at some point.
It has a number of things against it. 1) It's bagged. 2) It's ancient. 3) It's been stored in a plastic ziplock bag. 4) in a tin containing other stuff too and consequently reeks of rooibos.
Obviously I'm not getting my hopes up here, but I've only got this one bag and I might as well get rid of it.
(I just realised now there's a typo when I added the tea. 'Manog' tea, indeed. *snicker* I'll fix it as soon as I'm done with the post.)
It smells a little bit of mango, still. It also smells like sugar and something sort of lemon-y. And of chamomile, weirdly enough. Quite a lot of chamomile actually. I wonder if, during the trade, tea bags might have been accidentally switched around so what I've actually just made is a cup of chamomile tisane. Well, there's only one way to find out.
Nope, it's not chamomile in disguise. There's a little bit of astringency (yay learning this!) and that's about it. It has very little flavour of any sort of in although it does actually vaguely remind me of chamomile. The reason I can say though that it isn't actually real chamomile in disguise is that chamomile, even really ancient chamomile of dubious quality, in my experience doesn't really fade in flavour the way this stuff obviously have. The dominant taste of the whole cup here is hot water.
I'm a bit wary of rating it because I would like to believe that in a better stored non-ancient bag it would have been better, but I have to go with what I've actually got.Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:26:12 -0500/teas/Mango/5906-mango?post=16789
Samba tea from Den Lille TebutikI gave up on the mango thing. I just couldn't sit there and essentially drink hot water with a bit of perfume in it. And since it wasn't what I had been inspired to have in the first place, let's move right along to this. This too is ancient and haven't been stored right, but I have better hope of this having retained some of it's original flavour.
It smells like washing up soap. I think it must be the lemon grass and the orange zest. I believe I can pick up a hint of coconut too, but mostly it's just washing up soap. I mean citrus.
Fresh taste, yes a bit actually. I think it has faded somewhat too, but at least it actually tastes of something. It has a hint of something minty that settles in the after taste. It must be the undisclosed spices. This isn't really something special. I can't pick out the individual flavours, but even if I could, I'm not really all that impressed.
I still don't know why I bought this sample, but at least it's better than what I had before.
Not having much tea luck at the moment. That should teach me to pay better attention to storage. But at least this is drinkable.Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:55:53 -0500/teas/Samba%20tea/5907-samba-tea?post=16790
Wild Berry Zinger from Celestial SeasoningsAnother one I found in the previously mentioned Big Tins of Mystery! It was out of a Celestial Seasonings sampler pack that a former friend (we fell out, probably for the best) once sent me for my birthday along with a few other things from CS. I remember being quite taken by the boxes. Pretty pictures. They had actually made an effort on decoration. I wasn't particularly interested in the actual contents though, which I found disappointing on account of 75% of them being herbals. I don't care about tisanes. They are not tea and they are not interesting. (And many of them aren't that well tasting either) Oh and FYI as a personal little peeve, rooibos falls under this category. It is not tea.
Anyway, berries! I like berries, so while I haven't bothered to look at the ingredients, I'm feeling semi-confident. I mean if I only have one bag out of a whole sampler pack left, then surely the others must have been used up, right? And if I didn't like them, there would have been more than one left, right?
It smells like... sweets. Not particularly fruity to be honest. Rather more synthetic and very very sweet. I do notice though that it gets a highly suspicious bright red colour while steeping. This is worrying. I have some very bad experiences with that particular colour. I haven't even tasted it yet and already I've poured the rest of the water into a small pot to heat it up and the kettle on with water for a pot of emergency Lapsang Souchong if I'm right.
Okay. Here goes. *takes deep breath and summons all reserves of courage*
Ack! Yuck! Spitty!
I was right about that bright red colour. It tattles about the presence of the dreaded hibiscus. That stuff seems to be in just about everything and I just can't get it down. To me it has a dreadful metallic sort of taste that reminds me most of all of blood. No thank you, says I.
It's a mystery though that there was only this one bag left. I must have traded the others, but why did I keep one?Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:27:35 -0500/teas/Wild%20Berry%20Zinger/2459-wild-berry-zinger?post=16810
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch'sOh my Steepster account, I hearts you like air. And like tea. And like my LJ account. Which says a LOT. You inspire me to do experiments with long forgotten samples like today, which is loads of fun, even when largely unsuccessful in finding undiscovered diamonds. And on top of that I get to babble about each one at length which makes it even more fun. Never leave me.
Right, so I've made an emergency pot of Lapsang Souchong. I need it on top of all this experimenting. Especially that last one there which I think must have been the worst of the lot. (Especially because it could have been avoided if I had not stupidly decided reading the info on the package regarding contents was unnecessary)
This is a stable. This is always a great cup of tea. Smokey and rough and JUST right. Enough experiments for me. I'll stick to this for the rest of the evening.Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:45:38 -0500/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=16815
Hedgerow Special from CustomOh dear, this is bravery and courage of the worst kind. Another adventure into the Big Tins of Mystery. It started with the question, "what tea should we have? Something plain or something with something in it?" and the reply was, "something out there." Now we'll see if my mention of the BToM might have been a dreadful mistake. And alternative name for it might have been 'Bracken Water Blend', but this sounded nicer and more like something you might actually want to try and put in your mouth.
I had lemon grass, red rosebuds and honeysuckle flowers. I have no clue what the latter might possibly taste like, but it does smell kind dusty and kind of smokey. Certainly doesn't smell like honey. We mixed all these with Ceylon Pekoe for the base.
It has a light brownish yellow colour, which is probably just due to the Ceylon and it smells really a lot of honeysuckle. That's not a smell that's easily mistaken. I can pick up something sweetish too which I think must be the rosebuds.
We tried a sip which was followed by silence. And the remark that it was odd that no side effects had been encountered. Yet. (Now I'm having my grammar corrected in a really sort of demonstrative way with looks and everything!) Anyway, I can taste a heck of a lot of honeysuckle and underneath it I think I can find some lemon grass. The rosebuds seem to be only there for show and the tea is um well camouflaged. To make a short story long it's a rather flowery concoction.
This all sounds very off-putting, but it's not really quite as it may sound (or smell). The word 'refreshing' has been spoken. I think we can say that we're leaning more towards Care of Magical Creature than we are towards Defence Against the Dark Arts here.
(And another plus, it seems to make the drinker kind of silly. Wait, are we sure that's really a plus?)Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:46:43 -0500/teas/Hedgerow%20Special/5923-hedgerow-special?post=16856
Almond Tea from Den Lille TebutikThe Hedgerow Special was fun and all, but just to chase away the floral taste (and you wouldn't believe how many attempts it took to write that omg! (and now I've messed this up too argh!)) you can't beat something sweet and (for me) tested a lot of times. (Ha!)Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:23:34 -0500/teas/Almond%20Tea/1514-almond-tea?post=16859
Blueberry from Adagio TeasSo we've had the Almond Avalance and the Peach Pandemic seems to be winding down. I saw (I forget who you were, sorry! Suzi?) someone mention that they wouldn't mind it if the next big trend be something with blueberries. I support that. Blueberry Blitz, yes please.
I'm getting more and more fond of this one for every time I have it. I thought the first time that the blueberry was nice but subtle, completely in contrast with everybody else. I had a cold at the time. The next time I tried it I was getting better and there was much more blueberry flavour in it. Now there seems to be even more. I'm worried about what might happen if I keep drinking this. ;p
Mmmm. Good morning tea when you're on holiday. (Now for that NaNo wordcount. *cracks knuckles*)Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:16:41 -0500/teas/Blueberry/72-blueberry?post=16939
Silver Tips Imperial Darjeeling from MANTRA ESTUDIOI have been challenged by a fellow Wrimo to get to 25K before midnight on my NaNoWriMo novel. That means I have currently a little less than three hours to get three thousand more words down. That should be doable IF I can find some discipline to do it and don't give up and go to bed. Now, I've just got to the bit where the actual plot really starts, so it's turned a bit more difficult. (And why is it all my posts here must have a setting?)
Obviously tea is required for this little project, and I turned to the only proper white one (meaning one of good quality and/or without additives) that I've got. I don't know why, really, it just struck me, when I was looking in the cupboard as a creative type tea. I am also going to put on some creative type music and write, write, write.
For some reason this also inspired me to bring my first yixing pot back into use. It's been dormant for a while. It just seemed proper somehow. Every time I scald this, I regret that I didn't have as many pots back when I bought it as I do now so that it's not seasoned to one particular kind of tea. I've got it to the point now where you pour clean boiling water in it to warm it up before brewing and then it has visibly changed colour when you pour it away.
Obviously, I'm not going to get a 'clean' taste of this particular tea out of this pot, but I'm not good enough at tasting the differences that it's generally a problem. Just an aesthetic sort of little complaint. At least it has never been used for anything other than greens and whites, so at least it's not going to take on a side note of Lapsang Souchong or some such. Obviously, I desperately need a new yixing pot. Or several. *grin*
I can't say anything about the proporties really because I don't know if they're really the REAL proporties, but it's sort of a light yellowy colour. The smell has a note of chamomile (which I'm 98% sure has never been made in this pot), and underneath a nicely sweet smell. Thankfully, I'm not getting any chamomile flavour, but the pot has definitely affected the flavour. It tastes more green than white, but with a light astringency and a sweet grassy flavour, I'm not really going to complain about it.
This was really more a review of my pot than it was of my tea, wasn't it? If you're curious, you can go and check out what I said about this tea earlier and compare. :)Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:05:01 -0500/teas/Silver%20Tips%20Imperial%20Darjeeling/1137-silver-tips-imperial-darjeeling?post=16965
Passionfruit from Adagio TeasSay, isn't it 'passion fruit' in two words? Anyway, I've been awake for hours and hours and we're moving rather quickly towards noon actually. And I haven't had a drop yet. Not because I didn't want any, I just didn't know what to pick. And then in a convoluted sort of thought patterns that I couldn't trace even if I wanted to, one Arnold J. Rimmer makes the choice for me when the following quote popped into my head. "You are the fruit of their forbidden passion. You're forbidden passion fruit." (Red Dwarf S3E6 The Last Day) And I thought, hey why not? (Again with the setting, self! What gives???)
Smells sweet and kind of floral and with a note of something that kind of reminds me of yoghurt, strangely enough. It has a sort of dusty taste to me that makes me wonder if it's fading and at the same time it tastes more 'real' than your average cheap flavoured bags. I think it's the lack of syntheticness that does it.
Unfortunately I accidentally oversteeped it a little bit and the fruity flavours have drowned somewhat. The tea as such hasn't turned unpleasant at all, it's just not really all that sweet and fruity anymore. However, a smidgen of cane sugar, and we are back in business. Very nice.Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:04:34 -0500/teas/Passionfruit/96-passionfruit?post=17014
Aniseed from Luka Te m.m.What's this? A new addition to the collection? "But Angrboda," I hear you say, "we thought you said you were on a fairly strict weekly budget this month and that it was Stingy-Month?"
Erm, yes. Yes, I did. And it still is. Just with the exception of the hour it took to walk down to the little local shop (and it's the same shop, btw, it just changed it's name), pick out *cough*five*cough* new teas and walk back again. AHEM!
I love liquorice and if you ask my boyfriend, who's english, he'll tell you that us danes have a weird taste in liquorice. But anyway, this was too interesting to pass by. Smell and visual tells me that they're not lying about what it contains. I can see lots of bits of liquorice root and it smells a LOT of the aniseed oil.
Anybody here who have ever tried making a pure liquorice root tisane? Then you'll know that it gives off a lot of flavour immediately after getting in contact with the water, so I'm not worried that it'll be overpowered by the heavy aniseed.
I was expecting a darker brew, but this is a sort of vaguely reddish light brown colour. It still smells rather a lot of aniseed but the liquorice root is definitely coming after it.
Interesting flavour! Or rather, double flavour. You get first the aniseed in the middle of the tongue and then as you swallow the liquorice root appears along the sides of the tongue. Instead of getting two flavours in combination, you get one flavour sort of taking over from the other. It's quite nice, but I can't really find much tea flavour underneath. I can only find a very vague astringency as a proof that it's there underneath.
ETA: Wow, a little bit of cane sugar really brings out the liquorice root here!
ETA again: Toned the rating down quite a bit because even the small pot is enough. More than enough actually.Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:18:51 -0500/teas/Aniseed/5977-aniseed?post=17020
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.First of all, this is NOT to be confused with Gunpowder as we know it, as in the green tea. While it does contain green tea and the green leaves are easily recognisable, they don't look like Gunpowder to me. The name has more to do with the nature and taste of the blend. (Also, I've translated the name from danish, in which the tea Gunpowder is never mentioned)
This is supposedly a secret blend. I suppose that's why on the shop's website it says what it contains. English breakfast, a green tea and lapsang souchong. So apparently it's only the identity of the green tea that is so sooper seekrit. My wild guess would be Chun Mee since that's a strong enough green to do well in blends and the green leaves definitely look like they've been twisted.
Since it has green tea in it, I thought it best to let the water breathe for a couple of minutes before pouring it on. In the meantime, all you can smell on the dry leaves is the lapsang souchong, but it's got a milder sort of smell with something sweet too, which I expect must be the seeeeeekrit green tea.
Considering that two thirds of this, at LEAST, is black tea and one of those is lapsang souchong, this has a very light colour. It smells really good though! The lapsang souchong isn't at all as overpowering in the brew as it is in the dry leaves. It sort of reminds me of a wet cat who has just come in from the rain, and I'm showing my colours as a cat person when I say that I kind of like that smell. It was just the first thing that popped into my head when I smelled it. A normal person would probably describe it as a full sweet smell with a note of smoke.
This is really great! I could definitely get used to this. It's like a very mild lapsang souchong that has been given just a little bit of sugar. At first you think you might as well have been drinking a weak lapsang souchong, but then the rest of the flavour comes out. The sweetness of the green tea and the fullness of the english breakfast and then the sharpness on top of it all.
If you don't like lapsang souchong's smokey flavour, I would suggest trying a blend of just the english breakfast and a green tea. Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:39:47 -0500/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=17030
Formosa Chun Mee (Organic) from Luka Te m.m.Okay, first of all, WTF? I could have sworn that Chun Mee was a chinese tea. This prompted me to look through my books on the subject and it would appear that Chun Mee originally came from the Jiangxi province and has since spread to the rest of China. It's produced in Yunnan now, for example. So why shouldn't it have spread to Taiwan as well, just like Gunpowder? But it just still feels weird to me that it's not chinese.
The name means 'precious eyebrow', and apparently refers to the way the leaves are twisted. I don't know, they don't look very eyebrowish to me, but there you are. They have a nice dusty green colour and the aroma is sweet but not very strong.
In the cup it gets a nice yellow colour. The shop recommended an 8-10 minutes steeping time which I just couldn't make myself do, especially since my literature warned me that if oversteeped this is a tea that can get devilishly bitter, so I took the first cup after about the usual 4-5 minutes and let the rest continue to stew. It had the same sweet but vague smell that was kind of difficult to find, like the harder you breathed in the more it just sort of slipped around your nose. This did not change significantly with increased steeping time.
I have to say that the first cup did have a relatively weak feel to it, but it was still a full bodies sort of flavour. It was a bit astringent and it had that prickly sort of taste that I personally think of as what they mean with 'spicyness' in tea. With increased steeping time it turned a bit more astringent and developed a more sour sort of after taste which went on forever and ever. Not sour like in a lemon, more like sour like in a cup of coffee that has gone cold.
The Gunpowder Blend that I had yesterday had that same sort of aftertaste to it, and I'm nearly certain that they must have used Chun Mee for that blend. And seriously proud of my self for having figured this out too.
I think I definitely preferred the slightly weaker one of the two cups I had, and I think it must also have a couple more steeps left in it.Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:14:14 -0500/teas/Formosa%20Chun%20Mee%20(Organic)/5992-formosa-chun-mee-organic?post=17093
Formosa Chun Mee (Organic) from Luka Te m.m.Second steep is very similar to the longer one of the first round. Bit more spicy though. And it goes quite nicely with this pear I'm having for breakfast. Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:35:12 -0500/teas/Formosa%20Chun%20Mee%20(Organic)/5992-formosa-chun-mee-organic?post=17100
Caramel from Luka Te m.m.Huh. It would appear that I'm currently following 70 Steepster accounts. 70! Looking at my dashboard page I think we can reach the conclusion that some of those must be inactive and I probably ought to clean it up a bit.
Anyway, I chose this tea during my little 'accident' yesterday because ever since last sunday when my boyfriend was here and we had this awesome caramel ice cream that totally tasted like childhood, I've been slightly obsessed with all things caramel.
The dry leaves smell heavily of caramel and it has tiny cubes of actual caramel in it. There is a very big risk that I'm going to offset the entire balance of this by uhm eating them. (I tasted one, they're yummy!)
Strangely enough, where I found the two other black teas I bought lighter in colour than I had expected, this is just the opposite. It's darker than I expected. A little darker than maple syrup. Granted it's slightly oversteeped, but still.
The smell is not as sickly sweet as you might have expected. Or at least I did. It smells like caramel and not so much of tea, but still not completely overwhemingly sweet.
Strangely enough, this tastes more like tea than it does of caramel. I was expecting something sweet and smooth and instead I got something lightly astringent and with a rough sort of flavour that makes me wonder what it's based on. It just say chinese and ceylon tea, so it could be anything. The caramel is there, but it's like it's caramel without sugar. It's good enough, but it's not really what I was expecting. I'm thinking a bit of sugar might bring out the caramel more but even as I'm missing the sweetness, I'm strangely reluctant to test it.
As mentioned, though, it was a bit oversteeped, so not doing that might make a difference. I'll try that the next time and possibly adjust my rating accordinglyWed, 11 Nov 2009 08:28:35 -0500/teas/Caramel/5995-caramel?post=17107
Vanilla from Adagio TeasI got inspired for a vanilla tea just now so I made me a small pot. And then my head wasn't really in it so I wasted a whole spoonful of this nice vanilla tea but going to put the leaves in the pot and failing to pour out the water that I had used to heat the pot up first. Very ARGH!-worthy when you only have a sample-size tin. I wish I had more of this to mix with. I've got a TON of stuff now that I'd like to blend it with, but alas.Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:24:25 -0500/teas/Vanilla/106-vanilla?post=17128
Princess Blend from Luka Te m.m.A blend from my local shop. And I don't know why I initially added and put unknown as the brand, since it's a perfectly normal shop that actually has a name. I don't know who their wholeseller is, but that's a detail. Anywho. It's actually called 'Isabella blend' but they renamed it since. I don't know, I preferred the first name, as I quite like Princess Isabella. She's cute and she was born on my birthday. :)
I'm probably only borderline in on the Vanilla Vogue with this one, but I wanted something else than plain vanilla. And the description does say 'notes of raspberry and vanilla'. Judging from the very strong raspberry aroma that it has, I would say that it has more than notes. There has definitely been raspberry aroma added to this and although I can't immediately find any vanilla in the smell, I think it would be a relatively safe bet that it has been added too.
This is, with rose petals, jasmine, raspberries, vanilla and something called 'pink sweethearts', possibly the single most girly tea I've ever encountered. I don't know what the sweethearts are supposed to be. I remember trying to eat one and getting zero flavour out of it, so I'm guessing maybe they're responsible for the vanilla/raspberry aroma.
I'm on my very last bits of this. I'm making it in my smallest pot and even then I probably shouldn't fill it all the way up. Just the one cup then. That's kind of sad, really.
Dark in colour and with a rather odd aroma that sort of reminds me of raspberries what have been baked. And hey, the sweetness of vanilla!
The tea itself is a bit bland when it comes to the fruit and the vanilla, although it may be because, with the limited supply of leaves, it's been brewed a wee bit on the weak side. It makes me wish I could have made it properly. It tastes mostly like a fairly bland and faded mix of the teas and then the sweetness comes through in the aftertaste.
No real vanilla coming through except in the aroma, although, with the description I'm wondering if that might actually be the way it's supposed to be. You know, it does say 'notes', not 'flavours'. So it could be that it's supposed to be tasted as a combination of flavour and aroma. Rather complicated, but there you are.
Or maybe, it's just old. Still I'm finding myself wishing that I had stocked up on this when I was buying the other day.Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:48:35 -0500/teas/Princess%20Blend/1248-princess-blend?post=17182
Soft Fruitea from PickwickIt's an addiction, buying tea, is. I can quit any time! *wild eyes*
I have my prejudices and snobby opinions about the sort of tea you buy at the supermarket. The cheap mass produced teabags containing second grade tea at best. It's very rare that I actually get some, but every once in a while I find myself in front of that shelf in the supermarket just to see if there's anything new. A flavour or a combination there of that I haven't seen before and I suppose it's an okay way of checking if it's worth trying it out at a better quality. I don't know where in the world this brand is available, but it and Lipton are probably the biggest supermarket brands here in Denmark, and not one I'm usually all that impressed by but good enough in a tight spot. My main peeve with them is that if you read the brewing instructions on the box they insist on boiling water regardless of the type of tea. I don't care what they say, I absolutely refuse to pour boiling water on green or white, the end.
Anyway, they had this sampler box of whites. And curiosity overwhelmed me. How much of a mess have they managed to make out of the delicate, valuable white tea? I figure if it's awful, it'll be good enough for the travel mug in the morning (and easier to prepare in a hurry) than my more expensive but better quality whites and greens.
It smells heavily perfumed and a lot like jasmine actually, which prompts me to see if there is a jasmine variety in the box. Guess what, there is.
Dear teabag producers. Jasmine scented tea is NOT a good choice to put in a sampler box, as it will turn everything in the box into a jasmine scented tea. -Me.
I can find the smell of grapes and pear, but it seems sort of synthetic.
I can pick up the pear in the flavour and it tastes natural. I can't really find the grapes and the tea on which it was based does taste white, but also very bland and dull. I should like to know exactly which white tea this is supposed to be. It doesn't help that these bags are not packed individually in an air tight way so it has picked up some of the jasmine from that other one in the box. I expect the variation with jasmine and orange blossoms will work a lot better than this one.
I have to say that it's possible that I feel about pear the way I do about peach. I love the fruit, but I don't much care for them in tea. Still, the tea as a whole totally lived up to my expectations.
ETA: I just added this tea and rated it 41, but on the tea's profile it says 61. How does that work?Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:30:07 -0500/teas/Soft%20Fruitea/6016-soft-fruitea?post=17190
Blossom Beautea from PickwickI shall try my hardest not to prattle on pretentiously about everything else but the tea I'm drinking with this one. Promise.
When I tried the Soft Fruitea, I mentioned that it had been contaminated rather a lot by the jasmine of this one what with the bags not being air tightly individually packed. I also mentioned that I expected this one to be better, so let's see if it is.
It smells pretty floral and mostly of jasmine, and that really seriously comes out when pouring the water on it. Like with the Soft Fruitea, it does get extremely dark for a white. Really it's like a light black tea.
I can taste blossoms of both kinds, especially and not surprisingly especially jasmine, and very little tea. It's not as cloying as the other one was and while it's not by any measure great, I was definitely right that this one was better.Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:31:11 -0500/teas/Blossom%20Beautea/6030-blossom-beautea?post=17220
Melon from PickwickThis is another one of the bags I got today, although it's not from the white sampler box. (There was a special offer on two boxes and I couldn't not get two! Shh!) This is just ordinary black with fruit.
The smell of the dry bag is overwhelmingly melony. You are not in doubt for a moment what sort of additive we are talking about here. It's the same thing while it's steeping although it does turn a little more synthetic in nature.
The brew is dark and it immediately gets that oily layer on the surface. Any good quality loose leaf tea gets it too after it's been standing around for a good while but in this one it's instant. I assume it must have something to do with leaf size.
The melon is very pronounced in flavour, but it's not sweet. It tastes rather more like the skin of a melon rather than the actual flesh. Or a melon that isn't quite ripe yet. Not sure what the drawing on the box is supposed to be, but I'm assuming when we say 'melon' here we're talking about cantaloupes.
The tea at the base is completely uninteresting, and really it's not actually meant to be interesting at all because all you're ment to get is the melon. And that really is all you get.
All that aside though, I'll inflate my opinion of it a bit in rating, mostly because I do find it an interesting flavour in tea, and one I wouldn't mind trying on for size in a better quality loose leaf.Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:42:34 -0500/teas/Melon/6035-melon?post=17237
Fresh Fruitea from PickwickAnother one from that sampler box. Apple and lemon. Slightly odd combination if you ask me, but on the other hand I was also surprised at how well vanilla and mint went together so you never know.
The bag didn't smell of anything at all, really, but when I poured the water on, I get a strong scent of lemon and underneath it apple. So that bit checks out. (Can you tell I'm biased?) It's just that it's so perfumed. It smells more like something you might dab behind your ears rather than something you would drink.
I've tried their green lemon tea before and found it wildly synthetic in flavour so I'm not getting my hopes up about this one. I was right. It is indeed the same perfumed lemon that they've used for this one. I can barely find the apple underneath.
I've been through three out of five varieties in this box now, and I'm reaching the conclusion that I kinda already new. This sort of thing is NOT the way to introduce yourself to the world of white teas.
I'm saving the pai mu tan I got the other day for a special occasion (and I've got one in mind) and this sampler box is seriously making me look forward to it.Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:24:17 -0500/teas/Fresh%20Fruitea/6062-fresh-fruitea?post=17302
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.After all these experiments with questionable tea bags (I said three out of five, earlier but it's really just four) I still have one left, the supposedly plain white (Ha!) but I'm going to save that for later. I'm in bad need of some proper tea. One that I can drink more than a cup of.
So I turn to this new discovery of mine. Yes. It's still awesome.Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:58:43 -0500/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=17303
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.Oh, for crying out loud...! *cleans up Lake Tea from the coffee table and living room floor*
FYI, if a leaf has settled itself in the spout of the pot and is disrupting the flow of tea through same, don't just tip the pot a little more in an attempt to compensate. It doesn't work. And teapot lids are not a tight fit.
This is a resteep of the previous pot, and it's definitely different. The lapsang souchong is much less pronounced and that elusive sweetness that you find in english breakfast comes out. I've always thought that english breakfast had a note of honey, and I'm getting it loud and clear here the second time around. Very insteresting.
I haven't usually had much success with resteeping of black teas, so I'm thinking that maybe the lapsang souchong carried the blend in the first steep and the green tea in it is taking over here.
I feel so sorry for you that you don't have my little local shop and especially that you can't have this particular blend.Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:59:43 -0500/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=17315
Earl Grey with Blue Cornflowers from Luka Te m.m.Weird, that I've never logged this! I really thought the entire supply had been logged at least once. This has caused the boyfriend to call me a slacker, so in return I'll inform you that he's conducted his first experiment with rooibos in non-bagged form. I got rid of all my rooibos' by inflicting them on him. Apparently it's something that will require some further experimentation.
Anyway, back to the tea at hand. The dry leaves smell sweet and flowery, and I'm not for a moment in doubt that it's a tea with additives. It's a darkish brew and it smells like Earl Grey with a floral note on top. No surprises there.
Supposedly this is like a normal Earl Grey but with a creamy aftertaste, and on that count I'll have to say Earl Grey yes. Aftertaste no. Not really. Not very much anyway. I've never been very good with Earl Greys. I've never really been able to truly pick up the citrus, unless it's really bad and synthetic like some I could mention. Therefore I can't really say how well this blend is in Earl Grey standards, but after some careful tasting, I can find a small note of citrus.
On the basis that I can form an opinion of it, I'll say a nice, solid black with a floral tone to it and a discreet citrus-y note, and on THAT form, it's a nice tea. Compared with other Earl Greys I don't know if it would live up to the rating.Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:39:47 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey%20with%20Blue%20Cornflowers/6070-earl-grey-with-blue-cornflowers?post=17331
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sGood morning Steepster.
Someone has, while I've been sleeping, logged a white tea with blueberry. You'll forgive me for not have paid attention to who you were, sorry. At any rate, it inspired me this morning. And you would think that this inspiration would mean to make something with a white tea. Or something with blueberries. Er... well it's got berries in it. And it smells heavenly. All sweet and fruity and it's full of dried berries. It's the sort of tea that you almost don't even have to drink. Just sit around and sniff the tin. Yum.
Due to the nature of the cup I'm using this morning I can't really tell you about the colour, but it looks like a light golden one while pouring. The brew smell primarily of oolong with a heavy berry note on top. I get associations to desserts and cakes and bakeries. A nice raspberry muffin, oh yes.
This development continues in taste. Where the dry leaves smelled heavily of berries and the brew was sort of half and half leaning towards the oolong, the taste is very primarily oolong and then a nice fruity sweetness, as if has been sweetened with fruit instead of sugar. Note, I haven't actually added sugar or anything else. It's extremely rare that I add anything to my tea, and if I do, I promise you'll hear about it. But IF I had sweetened it, it tastes like I've used fruit instead of sugar, and... Okay this is turning strange. I'm even beginning to confuse myself. I'll just stop.Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:58:29 -0500/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=17403
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.This is my post number 100! Happy Steepsterversary to me, yay!
This is one of the teas I bought earlier this week when I first feel off the stingy-wagon. I haven't tasted it yet as I have saved it for this very occasion and this particular post.
Pai Mu Tan has always been for me one of THE white teas. This one and Yin Zhen. They are the very essence of white teas and nothing can surpass them in greatness. They don't need to have fantastic outstanding flavours, they are carried by their names alone.
Today has been a day in the name of glazed teapot maintenance. I very rarely clean out my pots on the inside other than a thorough rinsing with clean water, because a teapot that you can see is in use is a teapot with character! And it also greatly reduces the threat of accidentally making up a pot of tea that tastes of soap residue. However, I felt that this tea for this post deserved as clean a pot as I could muster. So that was eight teapots total, half a tub of baking soda, god only knows how many liters of water boiled and even more water for rinsing. (The planet probably hates me now.)
I am very carefully brewing this as well as I can without actually owning a thermometer. I'm a bit surprised that the shop recommends a steeping time of 6-8 minutes which I think is eons for a white, so I had to consult my literature. To my enormous surprise, the literature agrees! O.o Have I been brewing whites all wrong all this time? Very well, I shall give it 6-8 minutes, although it's really difficult to convince my head that this is a good idea. My literature also informs me that green teas are best steeped without the pot lid on so as to prevent it from stewing in the steam and a gentler preparation. I'm assuming that this also goes for white tea.
It's steeping now, there are five minutes to go. I'm really nervous that I'm going to ruin this. What sort of Steepsterversary post would that make! O.o
Anyway, the dry leaves are large and green and they have a fresh, grassy sort of smell. You can dream yourself halfway to China on this smell, it's very nice. Because I'm impatient and can't wait until I've poured a cup, I've been sniffing the pot too as it steeps. The grassy smell is more prominent here when mixed with the steam, but it's hard to really pick up on the notes this way.
I have made sure to choose a big white porcelain mug that allows me to drain the pot in go. Of course, I have to say yay for surface tension here and I'm not going to attempt lifting it! :p It's a darkish golden colour, very unlike the murky brownish stuff in the cheap teabags, and after pouring, it darkens a little further quickly.
It has a very clear sort of vegetal and leafy smell that you don't have to sit and search for. It flows right up and out of the cup and fills up your nose on every sniff.
Mmmm, no, the long steeping time definitely didn't ruin it. Once again it would seem that the literature is smarter than me. It has a natural sweetness to it. It's not as delicate as I had expected. I've had white teas before, obviously, but I think this might be my debut with this particular variety. It leaves a sort of fresh feeling in the mouth on the sides of the tongue, the same way that mint does, only without actually tasting of mint at all.
However, it does also leave behind that somewhat sour aftertaste that lasts forever. I like a tea that has flavour that doesn't go away immediately, but I'm not really a very big fan of this particular sourness. I find, though, that it decreases considerably if I don't keep the tea in my mouth for too long before swallowing.
I am not in the slightest disappointed by this. (And will have to take my white tea brewing methods up to some serious revision, it would seem...)Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:57:52 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=17422
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.Cheers to the next 100 posts. I'm still drinking this. I'm on my fourth infusion now.
Steeps two and three still had loads and loads of flavour in them. That sourness in the aftertaste that I mentioned is almost non-existant at this point and the natural sweetness of the tea is more pronounced.
Steep four is turning slightly greenish in colour. It's almost completely clear when pouring, but after it has been allowed to stand and develop a little more in the cup after pouring it turns into that same golden colour again. It's the same with the flavour. Beginning to show a little weakness at first, but once it has had a few minutes to develop in cup there's still lots of flavour in it.
I don't have time to do any more steeps of this tonight, but I would rather like to see how much flavour it's possible to wring out of this very nice tea. My resteeping experience only goes so far as to immediate resteeps. Is there a good way to somehow preserve the leaves over night? Like, should I rinse the pot out and put the leaves in the fridge overnight or should I dry them or some such?
Advice? Ideas?Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:16:42 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=17465
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.ARGH! I accidentally did something weird and the post got eaten. I think it must have been a stray back button click. Oh well.
We're gearing up for steep five of this. I was advised last night to put the leaves in the fridge over night, and then while I was sleeping I was adviced to not do that under any circumstances ever. Hm. Well, I stuck them in the fridge because that was what I had to go with at the time of going to bed and to be honest I felt best about doing that from a hygeinic standpoint.
I took the pot out some 45 minutes ago to let the leaves acclimatise themselves a bit, but primarily because the idea of pouring 80C hot water into an ice-cold favourite teapot with farm animals on it sounded a bit risky to me. I've seen what happens when you pour newly boiled water into a glass that wasn't technically made for it. It... exploded... So yeah, I'm cautious. And especially with this one. (Farm animals!)
Again, it's got that funny green shade in the cup and it's as clear as water while pouring. Still got some aroma to it though, and while it has lost colour in the cup, there still plenty colour left.
Tastewise, it's faded a bit. It's definitely beginning to taste weak now. I think if it got a little help from just a pinch of fresh leaves, there would still be plenty of kick in it. It just needs a... crutch, so to speak.Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:00:12 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=17551
Vitao White Tea from NesteaI've been to my littlest cousin's 7th birthday today. I have been fed a lot of food as well as some hot cocoa, which was nice, and some coffee, which was terribly awfully acidic. Don't know what brand that was, but definitely not one to my taste. Tea wasn't offered, and I don't like making a nuisance of myself about when I am actually fully capable of drinking coffee and there are other beverages available. On the way home I had to switch trains and had a fifteen minute wait for the next train, so I went into the kiosk and got me a bottle of this stuff.
Let's start with the beginning, the description of the... the... tea, for lack of better word. "A touch of apricot." A touch? A touch?!!! You're joking, right? If this is a touch of apricot, then they've touched this stuff to a mighty large apricot. I like apricots a lot, though, so I can deal with that.
It also contains not tea, but tea extract, which if you ask my snobby self, although they are both made of tea is no more the same as tea, as raisins are the same as wine in spite of both being made of grapes. (Gosh, what an awkward sentence! You know what I mean, right?)
Let's not mention the synthetic smell and go straight to the flavour. I can find some tea in it, mostly in the dry astringency, but very little actual tea flavour. Mostly it's just like a sort of apricotty cordial, though. Sweet, but not too much so, and refreshing too. And definitely not as boring as the wide selection of carbonated soft drinks. Sometimes you just don't want bubbles, you know?
I'm debating with myself how to rate this, and I have decided that I should rate it primarily on how much I like it on its own terms, because I do think it's an excellent alternative to fizzy drinks.
If I had rated it on how much I like it in terms of how much I think it had to do with tea, it would have been about a 25.Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:16:30 -0500/teas/Vitao%20White%20Tea/6164-vitao-white-tea?post=17593
Melon from PickwickBacklogging. Had this in my travel mug this morning. Wasn't something I was really drinking quickly and I found the melon flavour very pronounced.
It was relatively okay for a morning tea, I suppose. Mostly I'm kind of indifferent to it.
The bag was okay for the morning though where I didn't really care all that much about anything else than caffeine content. Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:49:19 -0500/teas/Melon/6035-melon?post=17683
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.Oh gosh, what a day! I hate the first day back at work after having been on holiday. Especially when first day back at work after a holiday coincides with the first day of moving lab craziness. I'm in bad need of some good tea. And a nap. And some ice cream. (And a little pity would be nice too)
/whining
I think this would be the sixth steep or something like that. Since the fifth was getting a bit on the thin side, I've added just a pinch of fresh leaves.
It's still as clear as water while pouring and it still gets that funky greenish colour in the cup. Lots of nutty aroma though, and the pinch of fresh leaves gave it a little more kick.
However, even if it wasn't for fact that for hygenic reasons, the leaves are being discarded today (and probably hygeine-wise should have been yesterday. If I get ill, I get ill. I doubt it'll kill me), there probably wouldn't be enough kick left in them for a seventh steep.
(Mind you, I may have used slightly too cold water, because I almost nearly forgot about it. I can tell because the fresh pinch leaves got into the cup and are refusing to sink to the bottom... *pokes them. Poke poke poke*)Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:52:28 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=17684
Puritea from PickwickBacklogging, yesterday morning.
I had this in my travel mug yesterday morning and right now I'm working off some scribbled notes in my notebook. it's the last variety from that sampler box I bought and this one is just (supposedly) white tea. I've taken all the bags out of the box and put them in my pretty little wooden teabag box, so they're all a little further away from each other. It should keep the contamination of flavours down at least a little bit. Of course that's probably too late, but there you are.
Anyway. The aroma was nutty, but the taste was rather boring. That said, at least it actually tasted white and it didn't seem to have been contaminated by the other flavoured and more smelly varieties in the box.
It's not by any means an outstanding white tea, but out of the four in the box, it was by far the best and it would be excellent for use in the travel cup.Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:45:09 -0500/teas/Puritea/6225-puritea?post=17836
Earl Grey from UnknownBacklogging, yesterday during work.
Or, work and work, I was at a course all day and this is what I assume they gave us. It was definitely citrus-y and when you serve a citrus-y tea to a large group of people without bothering to tell them what sort of tea it is, this is usually it.
It was watery weak and synthetically citrus-y. Drinkable, but only for the lack of better. On the next course day, if we're not having it somewhere where I can pop into my own lab and make me a quick cup, I think maybe I'll just drink coffee instead.Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:11:53 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/6226-earl-grey?post=17837
Formosa Chun Mee (Organic) from Luka Te m.m.Supplier suggests a steeping time of 8-10 minutes on this. Up to TEN MINUTES on a green tea? One that literature tells me will get crazy bitter if oversteeped? And one that same literature suggests 3-4 minutes on? Now what am I supposed to think here?
In the interest of proving the shop wrong once and for all, I gave it nine minutes. It's a dark yellowy brown in a highly suspicious sort of way, but there's nothing wrong with the aroma. Lots of kick in that.
Still, I'm a bit scared to try this out.
Okay, it's not undrinkable, but it's clear that it's so not been brewed optimally either. I'm picking up a note of salt here and a lot of nuttyness. There's a touch of bitterness at the back of the tongue in swallowing which tells me that just 30 seconds more would have turned this undrinkable.
I would definitely trust the literature on this one and steep for no more than four minutes for an optimal brew.
It will be interesting to see if I can resteep this successfully or if I've just managed to ruin the leaves.Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:15:13 -0500/teas/Formosa%20Chun%20Mee%20(Organic)/5992-formosa-chun-mee-organic?post=17838
Formosa Chun Mee (Organic) from Luka Te m.m.ARGH! All these posts about the funky Adagio flavours that no sane person could have thought up are so jealousy-inducing. I went back and checked when I made my one and only Adagio order and that was in June. And it's only the Tie Kuan Yin that I don't have any more of. (That stuff never lasts long around these parts) I want so desperately to try those new flavours. If I shop really really really seldomly, like twice a year tops, I can defend placing the odd Adagio order, right?
And yes, I know they have a European store too, but they have a very small selection, so that's a good place for stocking up on well-known favourites. But not really much else.
Second steep of this now. And I'm going with literature on this one, and giving it a four minutes steep. I'm a bit worried that I've ruined the leaves with the long steep this morning, but there's only one way to find out.
Nice and golden colour this time around, but the aroma seems a bit sour. A bit stewed, you know? The flavour doesn't seem to have taken any damage, though. Bit weak but I suppose that's only to be expected considering the way I've treated these leaves.Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:42:33 -0500/teas/Formosa%20Chun%20Mee%20(Organic)/5992-formosa-chun-mee-organic?post=17848
Elephant Vanilla Chai from David RioOMG I should NOT have checked Steepster this morning. Stupid idea. For two reasons. 1) It made me miss the train (again) and 2) I've spent the whole entire day in a 'don't wanna work, wanna play!' frame of mind. Needless to say, the day went by reaaaaaally slowly.
On the way home from work I came over kind of peckish so I stopped in at this new little bagel place at the train station to get me something to eat on the way home. They also had your basic coffee drinks, cafe latte, cappucino, that sort of thing. And they had chai. Remembering my recent experience with the Chai-cino from Baresso, I thought I'd try what the chai here was like. As it turned out, when I had ordered, they had several different kinds to choose from. It didn't say so anywhere on their menus or signs or anything, and I couldn't really hear the girl who made it very well, so I picked this last one because it was the only one where I could hear what she said. I had already asked her to repeat herself on two other things, and I was getting tired of it. Too much noise around. They had some awesome looking tins, though. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to spot a brand name. I have, however, found a website that tells me they get their chais from David Rio, and then they listed their five variants. Some further poking about the internet landed me on David Rio's site which was rather more forthcoming with the details.
Based on the description on DRs site and the fact that I'm pretty sure I picked one in a blue tin, I THINK this was the one I had.
This one was a better experience all in all. It was definitely vanilla-ish and it blended well with the milk. It wasn't as drowned in cinnamon as the Chai-cino was, but I could still find a touch of cinnamon in it. There was also something else that I couldn't identify at the time. It was a warm sort of flavour. Not hot like chili or something like that at all, but a warming sort of flavour. It wasn't even really a flavour as much as it was a sort of sensation of some sort of warming spice being around. Does this even make sense? In my head it seems very likely to have been the cloves and cardamom in combination.
I thought it even had an overall caramel note underneath all the vanilla.
It still tasted quite fat, though, and it was obviously rather sweet. It tasted really nice, but it was more kind of a dessert rather than a beverage.
I think I'm getting better at this chai malarky!
And now to tackle the Dashboard. *Deep breath of courage*
Beware, I shall start playing with my cupboard very very soon!Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:21:56 -0500/teas/Elephant%20Vanilla%20Chai/6289-elephant-vanilla-chai?post=17941
Green Tea from UnknownHuh. I'm drinking this one now because I couldn't figure out how to add it so I could put it in my cupboard. So I thought, HA! I'll just drink it, I will. Only had the one bag, see! Genious, I am.
Except too late I realised that I couldn't log it without adding it. *headdesk* You would think that would be logical, but nooooooo!
Anyway, this is a tea that was given to me by a friend who had been on holiday in Japan. I haven't the slightest clue of what it says on the bag, it's all in Japanese. It only says 'Green Tea' and the name of the hotel in letters that I can read. There were these teabags in the hotel rooms for the guests. (There was also a super-foul ...concoction that they claimed, apparently, was plum tea. It was a powder that you stirred into hot water, it looked like washing machine soap and it tasted like sweat. It was disGUSting!)
I'm pretty sure it's Sencha. It's light, like Sencha, and it would seem the obvious choice to give to the guests in Japan. It's got a sweet, mild and nutty flavour, but it's not really particularly interesting. No clue about the quality of this stuff, obviously.Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:54:04 -0500/teas/Green%20Tea/6297-green-tea?post=17955
Elephant Vanilla Chai from David RioHad another one of these on the train home today. This time I actually heard what the two other choices were, but I was feeling whimpy and didn't dare try any of them. One was cinnamon which just reminded me of the over-cinnamoned chai-cino from Baresso and the other was 'spicy' which.... Yeah. Whimpy.
Today I noticed, though, that they sell small tins of their chais too, I guess about 100 g or 150 g or something like that. I don't have one of those milk steaming things at home so I'm not sure if I could make it properly at home if I tried. Not like they do anyway. And they were kinda pricey. 139 kr for a tin. It'd be a shame to spend that if I can't get it right. Remind me to ask my boss. Maybe she'll be interested in splitting a tin.
Anyway, it was still good. I think actually I liked it better today where I knew what to expect than I did yesterday where I didn't know. You know? Something that tastes more like dessert than beverage becomes less of a 'mis-placed' sort of flavour when you know what you're getting.
I'll get around to trying the spicy one some day when I'm feeling brave. But I'll just get a small one then...Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:58:26 -0500/teas/Elephant%20Vanilla%20Chai/6289-elephant-vanilla-chai?post=18006
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.It was after the sweetness on the train ride home, I think. I just needed something now that went KAPOW! at me. (Oh look, punny! I honestly honestly hadn't even realised until after I wrote it. Honest!) This is the first that came to mind and ARGH! at new Cupboard feature that caused me to put all tins back in the Real Life cupboard instead and organising them so they all fit in the small cupboard. This is not something that involves considerations as to which tins are used more often. It's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle project. Consequently I just spend some five minutes searching for this particular tin in a rather small cupboard.
Ah yes. This is more like it. The sweet note and the smoky note in perfect balance. When I'm done with the tin I've got at work, I'm getting me some more of this to drink there. (I wonder how shocked colleagues will be at the smell of this? Hey, I wonder if I can get any of them to taste it! That could be loads of fun. I think only one of them will like it.)
Kapow indeed. :9Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:59:59 -0500/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=18027
Caramel from Luka Te m.m.Good morning, Steeperites. Or... just... morning.
It's one of THOSE mornings, shaping up to be one of THOSE days due to it already having been one of THOSE nights. Woke up no less than three times and couldn't remember what day it was, so I had to get up and check. My eyes have been runny all night and now feel full of grit. I don't know why that happens, it doesn't appear to have any particular trigger, it just happens every now and then. So I get up this morning and troll about the internet for a bit. Twice, I've closed the browser instead of closing a tab. Clearly tea is, at this point badly needed, so I go and put some water on to boil and fill the pot with hot tap water. The hot water here gets ridiculously hot after having run for a bit, making washing up a chore reminiscent of punishment, so I don't even have to boil twice. I then forgot I had filled the pot with that water and added two spoonfuls of tea leaves to it. I even had a few seconds of trying to remember how come they weren't falling to the bottom of the pot.
And it's only 9 o'clock... *cue ominous music*
I thought black and sweet would be the way to go here, so I made me a pot of this caramelly stuff. I have resisted the temptation (nearly) to eat (too many of) the little caramel squares in the tea, so it shouldn't be (too badly) out of balance.
Ah, not to sweet and ever so slightly astringent. Possibly dreadfully oversteeped, but it doesn't seem to be completely ruined. I can feel the day improving already.Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:00:56 -0500/teas/Caramel/5995-caramel?post=18088
Vanilla Caramel from CustomOkay, I've got some tea in me now and some other cool stuff has happened and I've listened to a cool song, so I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about the rest of the day now.
Still, I do have domestic chores to ignore, and what better way to do it than having another cup of tea.
This is a Sudden Inspiration blend. Kind of brave actually because it consists of my Caramel tea from Luka with half a teaspoon of Vanilla from Adagio in it. The brave thing about it is that the Caramel is a resteep of the cup I had a couple of hours ago, and I haven't got the foggiest clue as to how well that tea handles resteeps... I may have just made myself something that will be rather weak and taste slighly of vanilla.
The aroma is quite nice. There are definite vanilla and caramel notes in it. A bit fleeting which I imagine must have something to do with most of it being a resteep.
Oh my GOD! This is... I can't even... I just...!!! The caramel SO didn't get hurt in the resteep and the vanilla is really bringing out the sweetness in it. Like a bit of sugar can bring out the sweetness more, but this is just without that side-flavour of sugar. I will totally have to try this again except without the caramel being a resteep. The whole thing is rounded off by the astringency of the tea, so it doesn't get cloying.
I had expected it would be nice, but I'm surprised that it was THIS nice. It reminds me a bit of the Elephant Vanilla Chai that I had yesterday. Only sad thing is that I'm running very low on the vanilla sample from Adagio. I should be able to get a vanilla black from my local shop, though, so I just hope that it's as good as Adagio's.Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:13:13 -0500/teas/Vanilla%20Caramel/6354-vanilla-caramel?post=18090
Nepal Top Oolong from A C Perch'sI was so disappointed by this the first time I had it. It was really expensive, nearly 100 kr for 100 g, which is a price you normally see in white teas and flowering display teas. And then it had so little flavour. It was almost unbearable.
Today has continued to suck, involving the local tax authorities who are trying to trick me into paying the same bill twice. I wouldn't be so irritated by this if it hadn't been for the fact that paying this bill last month is a major contributing factor to november having to be stingy-month. *growl*
I needed something soothing and I haven't had a pure oolong in ages, so I'm going to revisit this one. My expectations of it aren't quite as high this time, so I'm going to be starting over. Hopefully I can shift the rating up a bit too, because '30' is just... I feel really bad about having rated such an expensive tea so low. So let's pretend that this is the first post I make about it.
The leaves are large and twirly. They're a bit on the darker side, although not as dark as a black tea. Some of them have that golden in-between colour. Pretty in the in. They have plenty of aroma. Sweet and with a note of tobacco.
(so far so good)
Once they have been steeped, the leaves turn a nice light green again. I've never noticed that before. I've given it a good long steep to get as much flavour out of them as possible. A C Perch's recommend eight minutes, so that's what they got. Actually they got nearly 15 minutes because I forgot to pay attention. In the cup it has a nice golden-ish red colour, like autumn leaves just before they fall off the tree. I'm using a fairly tall mug and I can just exactly see the bottom of it. The aroma of the brew is sort of reminding me of broccoli that has been boiled in lightly salted water with a small lump of butter in it. I wouldn't say it's a broccoli note, but when I smell something vegetal with a weak butter note and a weak salt note, broccoli is the thing that first comes to mind.
The first sip of the first steep was primarily bitter. This, obviously, has to do with oversteeping. As mentioned I was aiming for 8 minutes and forgot to pay attention so it got nearly 15 instead. They don't say anything about recommended temperature other than 'freshly boiled water'. I can taste very little else than the beginning bitterness, so I think it's safe to say that pretty much ruined this. How annoying. But on a day like today, hands up everybody who's surprised. Anybody? No?
Dumping the first steep then, and going straight to the second. In my opinion any proper oolong should be able to handle at least one resteep, so I'm not too concerned about it shifting the review. The second steep involves a kitchen timer, so as not to make the same mistake again. It's much much lighter this time around. A more orange-y golden, but the aroma is exactly the same.
No bitterness this time. I'm thinking I must have made it up too weak that first disappointing time. It has a nutty note, some astringency if you really search for it, and a clear leafy primary flavour. Well, I say 'primary', but the thing is it only really comes through if you get a large enough sip. If you just take tiny little nips, all you get is the nuttiness. It's especially brought out if you slurp a bit and get it nicely mixed with air while tasting. A very very VERY small barely there flowery note too. I can't even find it in every sip.
To begin with this doesn't have much in the way of after taste, but as you take a few sips, it starts to build up. If you're eating anything with the tea though, you'll ruin it. Every time you take a bite, you have to start over.
All in all, I'm feeling much more happy about this tea now than I was before, and I've shifted the rating up considerably. Is it worth the high price though? No, not really. You can get lots of similar or better oolongs at half the price this one cost.Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:41:34 -0500/teas/Nepal%20Top%20Oolong/4585-nepal-top-oolong?post=18094
Nepal Top Oolong from A C Perch'sI'm having a resteep of this with my dinner, so it's the third steep. I added a pinch of fresh leaves to the pot to give it a little extra kick.
I know I said the aftertaste gets cancelled out when you're eating something too, but there you are are. The leaves and the pot were already there and I was feeling lazy.
Inspired by the post about it earlier today though I also boiled some broccoli in salted water with butter, and I smelled the steam as it boiled. I was right. That was EXACTLY the note I found in the tea this morning. I feel all satisfied with myself for having noticed that.
It seems very similar to the first two steeps, but I think if I hadn't added a few fresh leaves it tastes sort of like it might have been a bit faded. I probably ought to not have added it in order to get a 'clean' third steep, but I thought it might just get weak. I'd rather have an inaccurate third steep than a weak clean one.Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:36:40 -0500/teas/Nepal%20Top%20Oolong/4585-nepal-top-oolong?post=18112
Nepal Top Oolong from A C Perch'sFourth steep while watching Midsomer Murders. Only ten minutes left of the episode and I STILL think they ALL did it. Gah!
It's hard to believe that this is the tea that initially disappointed me with lack of flavour. I must definitely have brewed it wrong the first time, because today I'm founding an astounding amount of flavour. It's a bit weakened but not that much. Yes, I added a few fresh leaves to the third steep, but not remotely enough that they could carry two whole steeps all on their lonesome.
I'm beginning to change my stance about how much I think it lives up to the high price. Tastewise, not really, but... I can't think of the right word. Like... the endurance of the leaves? How many times they can be used successfully? In that regard, it is definitely worth a purchase. I still think it's very expensive, but it gained a little more worth in my eyes.
(OMG the vicar did it??? But but but but but he was the nicest person around! I did NOT see that one coming.)Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:59:11 -0500/teas/Nepal%20Top%20Oolong/4585-nepal-top-oolong?post=18119
Aniseed from Luka Te m.m.When one of the first things you see after having woken up is annoying, then you need a tea to match. Not an annoying tea, just one that matches. This is mine. It's my "HA! IN YOUR FACE, ANNOYANCE!"-tea. Which I suppose is interesting considering I gave it a mediocre rating the first time around. But there you are.
Ah yes, that's better. The aniseed first and then the liquoriceroot at the back of the mouth after. A sweet tea that makes me feel like my mouth is turning black. It reminds me of the strong liquorice that we like here in Scandinavia but which my boyfriend, who's english, claims is nearly inedible and at the very least shouldn't be sold as 'sweets'.
There might be a yo-yo rating on this one. For a first sip, I feel like it's set really low, but that might change later on.
ETA:
I forgot half a cup and it got cold. Hey, this is almost better when cold. Rating is going up a notch.Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:55:28 -0500/teas/Aniseed/5977-aniseed?post=18137
Aniseed from Luka Te m.m.A setting is being demanded of me, so here I am (I quote) with my delightful boyfriend (who's really putting up nicely with all this abuse) on a sunday afternoon. I had some of this this morning and discovered that I liked it a lot cold too, so I made a pitcher of it and put it in the fridge for later. It is now later.
For experimental reasons I added just a pinch of peppermint to it, because I was reminded of that peppermint/liquorice root herbal stuff that two of my colleagues favour. That one is I think about two thirds peppermint and one third liquorice root, and I find it far too pepperminty for me, which is why I only added a pinch of it to this.
I think it turned out very nice. It's like it's sweet, but it's not sugar-sweet. Another time though I think I'll add a little more peppermint to the mix because I can't really pick up what I added to this one. Obviously I haven't found the golden middle road yet.Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:00:11 -0500/teas/Aniseed/5977-aniseed?post=18143
Raspberry from Adagio TeasI saw two raspberry tea posts in a row and I got inspired. So Raspberry Rampage, oh yes!
(I'm a widdle wabbit wot can't type!)
Having this now as an after-after-dinner tea, and it's nice and semi-sweet.
There's lots of raspberry in the aroma and something fruity in the flavour although I still don't really think it tastes very raspberry-ish.
I give up, I can't think of anything else to say about it. Dreadfully short post from me, I'm so sorry. Forgive me.Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:47:33 -0500/teas/Raspberry/101-raspberry?post=18171
Puritea from PickwickBacklogged from this morning's travel mug. My, my. I do believe the Drama Llama visited Steepster last night. Complete with Martyrian Exit and everything. I will outright admit that I might not have handled it too well. Wank makes nobody look good, and I'm no exception. A better approach would probably have been to show them how to write a discussion prompt without being hurtful in the process, but I was too angry at the time to realise that. Again, my apologies to the admins for not having managed to contribute in a constructive way, but it doesn't change the fact that I stand 100% by every single word I said. Or wrote, if you prefer.
One good thing did come of it, though. This morning I enjoyed my cheap-as-dirt and supposedly-white bagged tea IMMENSELY. Spite can make the mediocre occasionally exceptionally awesome.
Cheers, all!Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:00:10 -0500/teas/Puritea/6225-puritea?post=18285
Vanilla Caramel from CustomBecause this was such a success the other day, I've tried to reconstruct it today. I needs it. I need something that is so good that it can take away the sneaking girl-stomach issues and the general pouting that the fact that my presence has been requested at work on wednesday, which because I work part-time is normally my day off, has brought on. I think I've mentioned it before, but I hate, abhor and just generally dislike meetings. Especially those I can't get out of.
So something sweet and distracting, yes please.
When I tried this the other day, it was the second steep of the caramel, and this is the first steep all round, so it's intersting to see if it'll turn out the same success or if I'm in for a bit of a disappointment.
Nope. Still good. Still sweet. What girl-stomach? What meeting?Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:00:51 -0500/teas/Vanilla%20Caramel/6354-vanilla-caramel?post=18301
Strawberry Tea from LiptonOh my god, I was with my boyfriend yesterday after work so I didn't have a chance to check Steepster at all. I just curiously peeked in at the forum last night when I was checking email and replied to a couple of topics, but I haven't read most of them yet and I haven't read any of my dashboard pages at all since... tuesday morning, I think. And this last week I've been on a rather an enormous adding spree for no other reason than clicking the 'follow' button is way more fun than it logically ought to be. I just like adding new people, it makes me feel social. Probably a subconscious response to being such an anti-social person in real life.
I'll just do my backlogs while gathering courage for tackling the rest.
First up, a backlog from yesterday. I was at a course and this was the tea served. Or rather, it was the topmost teabag in the pile provided to choose from. I wasn't feeling picky and I've always liked strawberry tea.
It did definitely taste of strawberries, but it was fairly synthetic in flavour. Had a LOT of equally synthetic aroma too.
Actually, it had so much aroma that (and I swear this is absolutely true) I accidentally dipped one sleeve of my cardigan in the cup and got a little stain there, and hours later the boyfriend sniffed at my other arm and stated, "you smell like strawberries today." He didn't know at the time that I'd had strawberry tea. I suppose it could be a coincidence, but what are the odds?
So, it was a pretty mediocre cup of tea, but I'm inclined to be generous on the rating. Even the most mediocre tea wins in flavour when you get to drink it from a proper cup instead of those cheap plastic cups that you just burn your fingers on.Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:31:49 -0500/teas/Strawberry%20Tea/6530-strawberry-tea?post=18448
Tiger Spice Chai from David RioApparently I'm doing my backlogs out of order. Oh well. This is from today, the train trip home from work.
Takgoti wanted me to try the spicy chai at that bagel place too, and today I was feeling brave enough to do so. I just got the smallest cup they had in case I didn't like it.
Turns out it wasn't really the sort of 'spicy' that I was expecting. I was think 'spicy' as in sort of 'hot'. Not cayenne-pepper hot, but something that would definitely be felt a bit in the throat while sinking. Instead it was a more warming spicy, and it was actually quite sweet.
I was also a little concerned about the fact that it had ginger in it, and I'm under the impression that I don't much care for ginger. The first chai I bought for myself ever and tried to make had something or other in it, a strange flavour that I can't quite recall anymore, but when telling others about it, they said that it was most likely to have been ginger. This didn't seem to have that particular flavour. Or at least not in a concentration where I couldn't get it down.
I could smell cardamom very clearly. I wasn't even in doubt about it. I could taste a little sweetness from cinnamon too and I was a bit on certain about whether or not it also contained vanilla.
It reminded me of the elephant vanilla chai, except not quite as sweet. It wasn't the same sensation of drinking something that was actually supposed to have been a sweet dessert, but it was much better than I had feared. I can't really decide, though, if I liked this one better than the elephant vanilla chai or not. In some ways I did, but in some ways I didn't. I can get a medium sized cup the next time, although I still don't think I'd be able to drink more than that of any of them without it becoming way too much.Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:43:41 -0500/teas/Tiger%20Spice%20Chai/6531-tiger-spice-chai?post=18450
Nepal Top Oolong from A C Perch'sAnd now I suddenly realised WHY I'm doing my backlogs out of order.
This is from this morning on the way to work. I was feeling really tired and in an oolong-y mood, so I made this for my travel mug today.
This tea is not suitable for travel mugs. I couldn't smell it at all and when you don't get the full experience, you just get a tea that has an annoyingly sour taste. It was drinkable, but suddenly, without the smell, it just turned all blah.
And here's the reason for the out of order backlog.
I'm having second steep now. I saved the leaves mostly because I didn't have time to clean out the pot before leaving, so I figured now that I came home, I might as well just steep them, having already learned that they can easily carry a second steep. I needed this. It's just much much much better when I can get the full experience, and when I'm not putting two thirds of my attention into trying to wake up properly.Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:53:44 -0500/teas/Nepal%20Top%20Oolong/4585-nepal-top-oolong?post=18453
Guanabana from Adagio TeasSuzi logged this yesterday and reminded me that I still had some left in my sample tin. I bought it primarily because of the odd name. Never heard of this fruit before, but if I ever get to South America (doubtful, considering my fear of travelling) I'll have to make sure to try and taste it.
It's sweet and fruity and tastes tropical. If I knew what the fruit really tastes like 'au naturel' my review of it might be difference, but as it is I'm thinking it's a fruit I might like. So this is my morning cup on this grey and dismal looking thursday. I understand the majority of you lot have a holiday today, so I'm guessing a lot of people won't be around. Wow... bad day for me to get addicted to the live stream, but there you are. My life in a nutshell.Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:59:35 -0500/teas/Guanabana/86-guanabana?post=18501
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.I am breaking out my celebration tea! And I'll tell you why, Steepster Peeps! Today I have, after some successful grovelling and begging, convinced 52Teas that shipping to Denmark would be a really good idea. And just a short while ago I placed my order! So not only have I discovered a new place to shop with very reasonable shipping fees, but I have ALSO for the first time EVAH! been able to get the Steepster Select item. I've been really good at saving money this month in spite of falling off the wagon a few times in order to buy tea, so although I'm not getting paid until monday, I decided I was allowed. It was really hard to choose. I dithered for ages. In the end I more or less closed my eyes and pointed.
Can we say WOOT!!!!
It was so worth being scolded for creating a horizontal scrollbar with my squeeing.
I love this tea. I really really do, but I hope I got the dosage right. Large leaves, narrow tea scooper. Do the math. Have also patiently steeped for as long as the shop said to although it's still twice as long as my brain says would be a good idea.
But once again I'm both surprised and relieved. It's awesome. It's celebration in a cup.
Now, if anybody wants me for anything for the next week or so, I'll be waiting by the letterbox.Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:14:47 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=18518
Chai tea from Luka Te m.m.The observant Steepster Peep will have noticed that I added this to my cupboard yesterday. The Great Chai Adventure continue, this time with actually buying a real, proper chai blend in my little local shop. It was the only one they had so that made the choosing a non-issue. Do or Die.
I Did.
I made it like Lena F described in the forum thread about chai, only half the amounts she wrote in case I didn't like it.
It was mild and smooth with the milk, much like the ones I've already had to go in the last couple of weeks. On top of that though there was the pepper. Prickly on the tongue and throat. I think this might actually be that flavour I found in my first ever chai that led me to believe I didn't like ginger. Or part thereof.
Overall, it was nice, but I could totally live without the pepper. I'd like it much much better if it didn't have that pepper in it.
EDIT: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The Evil Enabler has struck again. Meet Lexitus, previously mentioned boyfriend. Say hello, Lexitus.Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:58:12 -0500/teas/Chai%20tea/6589-chai-tea?post=18593
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.Fifth steep of this for dessert. I had fourth steep in my travel mug this morning.
Yes, I am still celebrating.Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:10:19 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=18602
Ceylon Pekoe from Den Lille TebutikThe other day Rijje reviewed a Ceylon tea and didn't much like it. This morning I wanted a solid, plain black and weirdly enough Rijje's review put me in mind of some Ceylon. Yes weird, I don't know how my head works either, but there you are. Imagine my surprise when I looked in my cupboard and found this!
There's just something about a tea as black as coffee and you're almost expecting it to have completely different smell. That Ceylon smell really is special, isn't it. Sweet but strong and kind of roasted. It reminds me a lot of your average English Breakfast Blend. Not that strange since Ceylon is often a big part of those blends.
Ack, I oversteeped it a bit, which it so cannot handle. Next stop Bitterville. Rather astringent and it's hard to pick up any proper flavours to review, due to my own negligence. (Which is ironic, since JUST YESTERDAY I was sitting around all smug claiming to be able to brew a decent and consistent pot of tea through guesstimation. Of course, that was about dosage of leaves and not steeping time, but STILL! GAH! *feels silly*)
So, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I added a little bit of cane sugar and I added a little bit of milk. I almost never do this. Very few teas IMO are nice with a little milk, and it's not just depending on the tea, it's also depending on the situation and the people I'm with. My colleague, with whom I frequently go to a specific cafe/tea house, is just about the only person that I will sit and drink milk tea with. Our cafe visits have turned out to be highly ritualised. Same table, same chairs, same tea, same scones. The only things that vary are the things we talk about and the cake he have.
Furthermore, and this is really a snob-thing, I prefer to add milk to the cup first and not last. When added last it'll go in and settle below the surface of the tea, like it's not properly mixed. It looks weird and then you have to stir to get it mixed right. With milk in first, you get it instantly mixed right and you save the spoon. One less item to wash up. Yes, this makes PERFECT sense in Angrboda-Land.
Anyway, this tea with milk and sugar isn't working for me. At least not today and not in this situation. I'm reminded of the chai I had yesterday, because although that one was based on Assam I feel like I'm sitting here drinking a chai where somebody forgot to add in all the spices. On the other hand, if I was to try and attempt making my own chai mix, this might be a good base for it.
Today and this morning, though, I'm feeling slightly let down.Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:16:01 -0500/teas/Ceylon%20Pekoe/5847-ceylon-pekoe?post=18661
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sI felt like something fruity, so I put the kettle on. And then I was too slow in cleaning out the pot, so it had cooled a bit before I was actually ready to use it. And since I had cleaned the pot in hot water (and the hot tap water gets really really hot where I live) the pot was already nice and warm. So that left me wondering if I should boil new water and use this to scald an already warm pot or what to do.
And then I thought of my raspberry oolong and decided to just pretend that it had been my plan to make that one all along (instead of the blueberry from Adagio). Perfect really.
I'm spending the day trying to bury myself in the last little bit left before I can say I've won NaNoWriMo. 2K to go. Estimated 30K to go before I reach the end of the story. The plan is to reach the 50K words to win NaNo and then continue writing and eventually finish the story. I'm not interested in publication at all, but when I've finished the story (If I ever make it) and it's been rewritten and heavily edited I know where I want to upload it on the internet and will of course share the location of it if and when that time comes.
Anyway, this tea is going to help me do this today. It's to give me some focus and concentration. Maybe I should have used a crappy tea, since if all goes well, I'll end up with half a completely forgotten cup.
I have my tea. Leonard Cohen is singing 'Famous Blue Raincoat' for me. I'm ready.Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:05:06 -0500/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=18668
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sInspirational tea for the WIN! Literally, actually, as I just hit 50094 words on NaNoWriMo. Just now.
Leonard Cohen is now singing 'I'm your man' for me and I'm on the second steep of this now. The tea itself can handle a resteep quite well, but the berries, not so much. At this point it might as well just have been a regular plain oolong. A nice one definitely, though. It has plenty of flavour and plenty of lingering aftertaste. Like it's crawling down into every little nook and cranny of my mouth and sitting there saving the nummy for later. Slightly astringent at first contact with the tongue but it goes away again.
Also, it makes me think of those of you who now and then describe a tea flavour as 'baked' and I can't for the life of me figure out what you mean by that, but this tea reminds me of it, so maybe it IS bakey and only my subconsciousness is registering it?
I should probably make a pot of Pai Mu Tan since that one has turned into my celebration tea, but really, I'd rather see if I can get a third steep out of this one. So I'll do that.Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:50:56 -0500/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=18671
Hazelnut from Adagio TeasApparently I hadn't actually hidden relationship info over Facebook way... Just had to reply to an all caps message from my aunt who demanded to know why she hadn't been told about Lexitus. *looks shifty* I've only told my parents about it and was rather hoping they would leak the info so I wouldn't have to. Obviously not. Curses!
So I need something fortifying. (And dessert-ish because I've just had dinner)
This is it. The hazelnut with the lovely sweet nutty woodsy smell. Like nuts smell in a cake with nuts in it.
Second tea I get today that turned out as black as coffee. Considering I ended up oversteeping the Ceylong this morning, I'm a wee bit concerned, but upon tasting nothing's wrong with it. It's JUST right, with that nutty hazelnut flavour that's at the same time roasted and sweetish. I think it's very good for a dessert tea, and since nuts in Denmark is often associated with Christmas in Denmark, it also tastes a bit Christmassy.
Maybe this is why it's going so well with my other dessert which is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aebleskiver
Also, I've added a load of people tonight (again) so apologies to those who may have been following the live feed when I uh flooded it a little bit.Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:30:24 -0500/teas/Hazelnut/87-hazelnut?post=18700
Ceylon Pekoe from Den Lille TebutikGood morning, Steepster.
We're trying the Ceylon again this morning and trying not to oversteep it too much this time as experience showed us that we're dealing with a pretty unforgiving tea here.
And it's still as dark as coffee and it still has that very Ceylonish aroma. I'm a bit concerned. Why the heck did I say in my first review of this upon purchase that it was surprisingly mild?
Oh well, at least it's not unbearably bitter this time. It's full and strong and just a hint of bitterness when I swallow. Not bad bitterness that comes with too long steeps or bad quality leaves. It's the sort of bitterness that's supposed to be there. It lends... I want to say 'character' but I'm wondering if I'm over using the word a bit. 'Personality'?
Anyway, if it hadn't been for yesterday's chai-that-wasn't-chai-experience, I'd have said it would work well with milk for those who likes milk tea, but having tried it and not really liked it much, I can't make myself say that in good conscience. If you like sweetened tea, though, a bit of liquid honey might work.Sun, 29 Nov 2009 04:25:26 -0500/teas/Ceylon%20Pekoe/5847-ceylon-pekoe?post=18766
Gunpowder from UnknownThis would be the tea for the day, chosen because I want something that I can just recycle. I have Writing Ambitions today, so I'm going to be lazy about tea and try not to spend too much time on Steepster either reading or writing. (*snort* as IF! And while I'm dreaming I would also like a billion kroner.)
I haven't steeped it more than two-three minutes here in the first go. It has a rather soapy smell today. Well, not really soap as such, I don't really know how to describe it but soap is as close as I can get. This isn't really surprising since I don't know what the quality of this stuff is, but it came in an ordinary clear plastic bag without even a brand name on it and 'Gunpowder green tea' or something like that stamped directly on the plastic bag, so I'm inclined to think it's probably not top quality.
The taste is strong and spicy and I can see why some would call it bitter. I don't think it's bitter, but it has potential to become so if oversteeped. It tastes like it would be good with a bit of mint in it, but I've tried that before, and I didn't really think it worked as well as I had hoped. It might have been better with further experimentation, but the result wasn't interesting enough that I've ever bothered trying again.
So, this is the tea for the day. We'll see how much I can get out of these leaves.
And now you'll have to excuse me. I've got stuff to edit.Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:36:46 -0500/teas/Gunpowder/2312-gunpowder?post=18769
Gunpowder from UnknownEditing: Done! Just dropping in my notes on the tea made during the day before going to bed. Didn't make nearly as many infusions as I had thought I would.
2nd infusion much like 1st, in spit of being forgotten, oversteeped and lukewarm. Completely drinkable, shockingly enough. Would probably have been a different story had it been the first steep
3rd same as the others. More or less. One note has come out of it here and it reminds me of popcorn. I think my gunpowder thinks it's genmaicha... At least now I know what to do in a pinch when I run out of genmaicha.Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:18:30 -0500/teas/Gunpowder/2312-gunpowder?post=18805
Gunpowder from UnknownHey Steepster Peeps and those who decided to follow Lexitus in particular? Did you know that apparently we are the Steepster Mafia? ;p It made me LOL. Does that make me Godfa- er... Godmother?
4th steep actually, with a crutch (as in a pinch of fresh leaves). I didn't actually need any tea tonight after the pot of sodding Earl Grey earlier, but then Denisend made a forum thread about honey in tea and... I got inspired.
And for some weird reason this Gunpowder was my first thought. Sweetening a green tea, and a naturally sweet one at that. I'm nuts, obviously. This will either be spectacularly spectacular or spectacularly dreadful.
Yup. It's actually spectacularly indifferent.
Gunpowder tends to have a sweet note naturally and the honey just added a little bit to it. Granted I didn't add very much, but it still didn't really swing it either way.Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:38:00 -0500/teas/Gunpowder/2312-gunpowder?post=18896
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.So I wasn't around all day yesterday. And when I came home I just tried to check the dashboard, and quickly gave up. I left a comment or two at the boards, but that was it. I'd rather go to bed, so I did. This morning I just took the first page of the dashboard.
If anybody replied to comments I may have left, or if anybody wrote a review that I should totally see, or if you just think you wrote a cool review, or if you reviewed an awesome tea, or if someone else wrote something cool, could you link me, please? Yeah, it's lazy but... Please?
This morning, uh, okay it's nearly noon, I'm having a lazy resteep of this from yesterday. It's the third infusion actually, so it's gone a bit dull. It's drinkable, but compared to the first two steeps, it's just not really holding its own. I'm not giving it a fourth go, but I might just make me a fresh pot of this. I can't get over how yummy this blend is. It's just perfect in every way and I wish I could share it with you.Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:40:24 -0500/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=19051
Blueberry from Adagio TeasKitch3ntools inspired me to make me a little pot of this. It's yummy! I've checked my local shop and they don't seem to have any blueberry tea at the moment. There is a shop in the city where I work where they might have some. I don't like their coffee grinders in the shop, though. I can't actually taste the coffee pollution, but it's enough that I know they ideally shouldn't be there. It's a snob thing.
So I'm drinking this while working out some guidelines and tentative travelling teabox planning (and wondering if maybe, just maybe, I've lost my mind). I've got nearly ten people so far, myself included, so that should be enough for it to be fun. Once I've got the guidelines worked out, I'll start collecting addresses and plan the final route.
In my organisational eagerness, I oversteeped the tea though, and now it's got a slightly bitter finish note. It's still good, though. Just a little... drier.Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:47:49 -0500/teas/Blueberry/72-blueberry?post=19108
Apricot from Adagio TeasTravelling Teabox planning in second stage now, as in taking addresses of participants and people (hopefully) signing up and stuff. So far this stuff is way easier to organise than I had imagined.
I'm making a pot of this here apricot tea because apricots are yummy and so by extension so should apricot tea be. I refuse to accept the rating I've already given it as truth. (And kindly don't point out that peaches and pears are also yummy but just not in tea.) Secondly, I'm feeling like this sample has been kind of neglected. I can't remember when the last time I had any of it was, and I'm frankly puzzled as to how there can only be about a fifth left of the sample tin. If I hardly ever drink this, then where did the rest go??? O.o
It tastes a bit watery... On the other hand I did just have dinner and it involved a lightly spicy sauce which may have affected my tastebuds somewhat. With my tongue in this state, it doesn't even taste that apricotty. Looks like it won't be today that I can shift the rating on this one. How sad. :(Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:07:16 -0500/teas/Apricot/69-apricot?post=19176
Chai tea from Luka Te m.m.Tonight I am absolutely for absolute certain going to bed at a decent hour! And I refuse to lie awake until half past 1 too.
So tonight I'm having just-before-bedtime chai. Tea before bed isn't usually a problem for me sleep-wise, so what I'm really looking for here is the warm milk aspect to hopefully help me fall asleep afterwards.
Of course... There is a fairly good chance that this is going to be pretty awful, due to getting sidetracked and the whole thing boiling over. Gah! Yay for ceramic cooktop scraping things. *grumble*
The taste is a bit... concentrated. Especially in the sugar department. Probably due to having overdone it a bit on all the boiling steps, but it's totally drinkable and the flavour hasn't been significantly changed. It doesn't taste burned or anything. There's just less of it this time than there was the first time I tried it.
The fact that it's sweeter this time helps with the pepper taste too. But I could still have lived without the black pepper. Easily.
And this me now going to bed at a decent hour. Goodnight steepsterites. (<---and thank you Takgoti for this awesomesauce word)Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:54:15 -0500/teas/Chai%20tea/6589-chai-tea?post=19196
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.Celebration/Comfort tea.
Celebration: New dashboard FTW!!!! That's pretty much how I imagined it once people started suggesting tabs. I'm especially in love with the tab about notices about posts that I made. No more having to scroll through tons of notifications, keeping an eye out for my name. YAY!
Comfort: Taxes FTL! >:( Long story involving own stupidity and unexpected december expense. BOO!
Needless to say there was only one tea I could possibly drink today.
It doesn't really work very well when the cup isn't big enough that I can drain my small pot in one go, so for the next steeps I'm just going to transfer some of the leaves directly to my little cup and hope I can get it right. I don't usually use these little cups... Eh well, I can add more from the pot and I can take some out of the cup. How hard can it be?
So yeah, this last bit of the first steep is a bit over-done. It's got a slightly dry quality to it and the flavour doesn't win from being somewhat stewed.
It's a bad day when you need a comfort tea after having had celebratory tea! O.o
Luckily, the second cup brewed directly in the cup is more up to par with previous experience with this tea. It's a bit strong, so I'll have to remove a few of the leaves, but it's definitely better. Much nicer and sweeter, even after leftovers of last night's slightly spicy dinner. This tea works remarkably well as a dessert, actually. It can't completely replace a good cake or ice cream or pudding or what have you, but it's a nice after-meal tea.
I think I'll stick to this for the rest of the evening.Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:33:43 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=19281
Caramel from Luka Te m.m.Yeah, I know I just said 'Pai Mu Tan for the rest of the evening' a little while ago. But then Mike went and logged that caramel tea of his, and whenever he does that, I want a cup of mine. It NEVER fails, it's totally contagious right out through the internet and the monitor and everything.
And the weird thing is, mine really just kind of mediocre... Yeah, I don't get it either but there you are.
I think I've managed to make it a wee bit better today than usual though. I just made a little cup, but there is some more caramelly flavour than usual on top of the tea flavour, so I gave the rating a notch upwards.
So cheers. :)Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:59:43 -0500/teas/Caramel/5995-caramel?post=19306
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.STEEPSTER! You are BACK! Never leave me again! *cries, cuddles*
This is the fifth steep of these leaves, the same leaves that I started last night. I've been so panicky about Steepster not working that I kept forgetting to make tea. I boiled water for these leaves several times and then forgot to use it so the water got way too cold. You would think this downtime would mean that I'd be getting my chores done instead, but uh... Let's talk about something else.
But we're back in business (I hope), although I'll probably be pressing post with my fingers crossed.
For four steeps now, and one of them a bit overdone, I've used these leaves with success and lots of flavour. No crutches this time at all. They fade a little but it's not really noticeable. If you served fourth steep of this and didn't tell me it was a resteep, I'd never catch on.
The thing with steeping in the cup instead of the pot though, is that in the cup I feel like I get the best result if I give it just a little stir before drinking so that the concentration of extract from the leaves is the same all over the cup, or the top 'layer' is just warm water. This happens automatically when pouring from the pot.
I've kicked the rating the rest of the way up and am making myself a sixth steep now (still without crutches) in celebration of Steepster coming back to me after several hours (so many hours!) apart.Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:32:05 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=19427
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.Seventh steep now while watching Midsomer Murders and still no crutches. It's definitely getting a bit thin now, but still seven steeps is like a new record for me. I'm really depending on that little stir before drinking to get it all well-mixed at this point. Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of flavour at this point. It just that it comes with a side of... water. It's like you get two different flavours. There's the white tea. And then there's the hot water.
(And for those keeping track, Barnaby is put on a diet and to make matters worse is initially put on the case of a stolen goose. So much lol involved with this. Poor Barnaby!)
EDIT: 8th steep like 7th. Nothing new here. Just wanted to add in a reminder about the Travelling Teabox! Don't forget to sign up by emailing me at iarnvidia@gmail.com before 2009 is out. Details on the forum thread here: http://steepster.com/discuss/102-travelling-teabox Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:23:53 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=19472
Ying De Hong from TeaSpringGoodmorning Steepster. If it is a good morning. I doubt it.
It's one of those mornings where I first woke up and went, "OMG it's light outside, I'm late for work, why did the alarm clock not ring?" and I'm halfway out of bed in a state complete panic before I remember, "Oh wait, I think it's sunday..."
And then went back to sleep which turned out to be stupid because I proceeded to have a strange dream about nuts and woke up with a massive headache. Lovely.
This calls for a good plain black, and while I had initially thought Lapsang Souchong, I changed my mind and decided that I might as well finish off this tin instead. Apart from the Pu Ti Cha which is for even more special occasions than the Pai Mu Tan, I'm officially run out of Teaspring teas.
So what do we think of it? I can't remember what I thought the last time I had it but the rating I've given it seems to be a bit mediocre. The aroma reminds me of english breakfast. It's the same sort of prickly tea smell with honey notes that you also get in the average Ceylon. It has a bit of that special Ceylon smell. I wonder if that prickly bit is what people mean when they say 'peppery', although it doesn't remind me of pepper at all.
Teaspring describes it as having a peppery note and a sweet finish. If the prickly that doesn't remind me of pepper at all is the peppery note, then I've found it. If it isn't, then I'm stumped. Not sure about the sweet finish, though. I've got a finish that's different from the initial flavour, yes, but I wouldn't call it sweet. I'd call it... slightly grassy. Slightly green. Mostly though I've got the peppery stuff in the aftertaste.
It's a pretty strong black, this. Dark in the cup too and with plenty of flavour. LOTS of flavour. It's just a shame that it's not a flavour that shouts, "HEY! DRINK ME!" At least it's not shouting very loudly. I might as well have had a Ceylon or a good quality english breakfast blend.
I'm pushing the rating up a bit, though, because it's better than that when put in the right comparisons. But I can't give it more than this.Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:48:15 -0500/teas/Ying%20De%20Hong/2030-ying-de-hong?post=19550
Chai tea from Luka Te m.m.I can't seem to make this consistently. Maybe it has something to do with whether or not it boils over horribly. Last time it boiled over and it turned out kind of concentrated and sweet. This time it didn't boil over and it's extremely peppery.
I could still live without the pepper.
It's very christmassy, I think the next step on the christmassy scale would be glögg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulled_wine#Gl.C3.B6gg) and that's an entirely different thing.
I'm being encouraged to try and blend my own, so I'll probably give that a go one of these days.
PS: The link up there looks strange, but it's been tested and it works. Even if it looks strange. Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:47:21 -0500/teas/Chai%20tea/6589-chai-tea?post=19578
Black Satin from 52teasYAY! I received my tea from 52teas today! It was an awesome day for it too because I've been feeling kind of odd all day, like the head I currently inhabit doesn't really belong to me, and finding this package in my letterbox when I came home from work helped the mood considerably.
I got this one and two others and I've spent a good half hour just trying to decide which one to try first. I've even been sniffing at all the bags, but they're packed in a smell-proof pouch, which for some reason smells like curry. Maybe the postman had Indian food for lunch, I don't know.
Finally I decided that this one was shouting the loudest in the chorus of "TRY ME! TRY ME!"
The leaves look nice. Not the hugest leaf size in the world, but there are plenty of liquorice root bits and cinnamon bark bits and the whole thing smells sweet and sort of a bit like cough medicine. I had a nasty throat infection a few years ago and the doctor prescribed me this absolutely vile cough medicine to help me with the cough. It smells a bit like that, so at this point I'm a leeeettle bit worried.
Those who have tried steeping a bit of liquorice root all by itself will now that it results in a very yellow liquid. The colour of this tea is hard to describe. It's sort of a normal sort of dark sort of goldeny tea colour, with a sort of liquorice rooty yellow sort of edge to it. Sort of.
The aroma is not reminding me nearly as much of cough medicine now that it's been steeped. Now it's more like a set of individual smells. I can pick up the cinnamon and the liquorice root easily enough and if I concentrate a bit, I can pick up the tea underneath as well. Cinnamon and liquorice root are both really sweet things and the tea is sort of binding it together and preventing it from getting too sweet and cloying. It lends a bit of strength to it. I keep sniffing at it, trying to figure out how to describe it and if I'm not careful, it'll just go cold, so let's just leave the aroma and appearence bits at this.
It's the taste that matters, anyway. At first go, I'm thinking it's a bit watery. I don't know, maybe I should have used just a few more leaves. It felt a bit thin. I'm not getting any of the sweetness from the cinnamon and liquorice root. I can find both, but they don't taste sweet. The cinnamon is reminding me a bit of chai, and it's making me wonder if a spot of milk might not suit this tea nicely. On the other hand the thought of liquorice root and milk together just doesn't really work in my head at all.
Mostly, I'm just picking up the tea, and while it doesn't say anything about the origins of it other than it being Indian, it definitely feels Indian too. It's got a full sort of flavour and the liquorice root and the cinnamon is just sort of undertones rather than taking over the flavour.
It's not really what I was expecting (I don't even KNOW what I was expecting), but I definitely like it. I think I'll have to experiment a bit with milk and cane sugar, because I think it might work with either of those two. But not both, I think. Not at the same time, anyway.
Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:32:44 -0500/teas/Black%20Satin/6477-black-satin?post=19656
Ceylon Pekoe from Den Lille TebutikSshhhhhh! *looks shifty* I'm skiving off for a few minutes!
I took this one with me to work, because frankly it's too boring really to drink at home. I have now found out that it's not very suitable for work either. It's difficult to brew it consistently and there are enough distractions at work that oversteeping happens every now and then. It's not a very forgiving tea about that.
It's got a bitter edge today because I forgot to take the leaves out in time. I don't think I'll buy this one again and I'm not sure I'm going to keep it here at work. I think maybe I'll take it home again and bring something else. If I get around to it before the tin is empty, that is.
Better get back to some sensible, productive activity.Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:27:29 -0500/teas/Ceylon%20Pekoe/5847-ceylon-pekoe?post=19743
Vanilla Date Flavored Black Tea with Coconut from 52teasI don't know why I bought this. I don't even like dates! O.o *pokes tin*
Processed dates, I can eat. Dates by themselves, no thank you. So why oh why is the first tea I see when first visiting 52teas.com a date flavoured one that makes me all yearning to try it? No, I don't get it either.
The dry leaves have big pieces of coconut in them and they smell like... like... like... I don't know actually. They have a VERY strong smell that's making me sniff-taste the tin, and finally coming to the conclusion that the aroma that I'm picking up is coming from the label which I've cut off the pouch to label the tin with. The aroma is sticking to it so much that I can smell it as if it was right under my nose even though it's lying an arm's length away from me.
It smells sort of like perfume. Not artificial, just something that you could imagine being a note in a perfume. It's got a sort of spicy-ish but not quite smell. It's a sort of smell that's easily recognisable, but I can't really tell you what it smells like. Maybe this is just how dates smell? How should I know?
The brew is a dark amber colour and the aroma is the same as the leaves but a bit sweeter and has a note of raisins. That's not surprising because dates have always sort of reminded me of giant raisins, only not as wrinkly.
Okay, the date flavoured tea for the person who doesn't like dates. (WHAT was I THINKING???) Here goes!
It's like... It tastes EXACTLY like it smells. It's like liquid aroma with a dusty sort of note and weird aftertaste. I can't really find the vanilla but I can definitely find a strong note of coconut. It sort of reminds me a bit of the honeysuckle flowers that I've got lying around that I've learned to be very careful with. I can drink it but... Another time I probably shouldn't fall for a tea flavoured with something that I already KNOW I don't like.
Srsly, what WAS I thinking? I hate to admit it, but this just didn't work for me.
IF you like dates though, I feel pretty confident that you would like this a lot.Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:52:11 -0500/teas/Vanilla%20Date%20Flavored%20Black%20Tea%20with%20Coconut/1761-vanilla-date-flavored-black-tea-with-coconut?post=19872
Jasmine Green Tea from Kusmi TeaFive down, four to go! Yup, I have been christmas present shopping. These were all the easy presents, to the people who are usually difficult to buy for. But this year I have actually been supplied with wish lists. For! The! Win!!! I guess my grandfather wasn't about to risk a repeat performance of last year where he got three copies of the same book.
When I was about halfway done I passed a cafe and sat down for a cup of tea and a yummy yummy chocolate orange cake. If ever there was a spongecake rating website, I'd give that one at least a 95.
This tea was a bad choice though. Oh the TEA was just nice. Very jasmine-y aroma and a surprisingly light brew. I thought it tasted pretty good, and was for once pleasantly surprised by Kusmi. They're better than your average teabags for sure, but I've always felt that Kusmi was generally just the teensiest bit overrated. I liked this one, though. It could have had a better balance between tea and jasmine as the majority of the flavour was jasmine, but it could definitely have been so much worse too.
It's just a shame that it was a far too delicate tea to go with the cake I had chosen. :/Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:20:23 -0500/teas/Jasmine%20Green%20Tea/7002-jasmine-green-tea?post=19881
Pumpkin Pie Flavored Black from 52teasYIPPIEEEEEE! I BOUGHT A STEEPSTER SELECT ITEM! Now that that's out of my system here's the confession. I haven't got the first clue what pumpkin tastes like. Or smells like. Or anything. Pumpkin pie even less. In Denmark we get little bitty pumpkiny things for decoration in variating colours and shapes and big ones that people make pumpkin lanterns out of. It's not something we really eat a whole lot of.
Therefore I'm not particularly concerned when everybody seems to complain about their various pumpkin pie teas not tasting all that much like pumpkin. Because... I wouldn't know anyway. After the vanilla date debacle this probably ought to worry me a bit. I mean, what if it turns out I don't like pumpkins at all?
Well, the smell of the leaves is sort of dark. It's a dark smell. I can find the cinnamon but mostly it's dominated by this other smell that I don't know how to describe. Kind of spicey but not. Sweet but not. I'm reminded a bit of fennel which I suspect I shouldn't, but it's the closest I can get to a description.
It brews up a sort of dark golden. A bit like a dark liquid honey. The aroma is a bit like the loose leaves, but the tea itself is shining through, making the whole thing sweeter, less spicy (but not) and less of the fennel.
Okay, I oversteeped this a bit, I think. It's got a very notable astringency like Indian black teas tend to get if you overdo it. I can't figure out how to rate it because of this, as it's difficult for me to look away from it.
I'm not going to give it a rating yet. I think I've ruined this pot. *sigh* Oh poot!Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:45:12 -0500/teas/Pumpkin%20Pie%20Flavored%20Black/5234-pumpkin-pie-flavored-black?post=19903
Black Satin from 52teasI gave up on the pumpkin thing. It was no use, I'd ruined it. Obviously it didn't handle oversteeping very well.
So we're taking this one. The one that I know what's like and is a known like. I think I'll try it with a touch of milk for the liquorice this time because it's a known fact that a handful of liquorice and a glass of milk goes hand in hand. We shall see if this is also true for liquorice root.
It feels a bit wrong though. Like... I'm girling up an otherwise fairly masculine tea...
Girling it up or not, though, it works very well with the milk and it really brought out the liquorice root. Yummy. Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:39:22 -0500/teas/Black%20Satin/6477-black-satin?post=19910
Elephant Vanilla Chai from David RioIt's been a while since I had this, but I bought a cup for the trainride home today as a reward for having walked from the hospital to the train instead of taking the bus. I need to get better at doing that again, I've just been lazy about it lately.
It's been so long since I had one that I was suprised by the sweetness of it when I first took a sip. It was nice though, and I keep liking it more.
I noticed today that they now also seem to have two other David Rio chais available, bringing it up to five to choose from. Including a green one that I'll have to try sometime, mainly because I have the hardest time imagening how that would work out...
Today, though, I'd been thinking about this all the way as I walked, so I couldn't very well try something else.
(Travelling Teaboxers, don't forget to sign up before Dec. 31st by sending me your address at iarnvidia@gmail.com. There are guidelines for the box in the Travelling Teabox thread in the forum.)Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:15:04 -0500/teas/Elephant%20Vanilla%20Chai/6289-elephant-vanilla-chai?post=20018
Pumpkin Pie Flavored Black from 52teasI couldn't let Mike stew in uncertainty for too long. And I was curious as to what this would be like when it hadn't been ruined. So I made a small pot and carefully carefully timed the steeping with the kitchen timer.
The aroma was pretty much the same. Sweetly spicy, sort of, with the fennel note. And a note of pepper too. I nabbed a small moutful of it plain and the first thought I had when I tasted it was... soap. Spicy soap. A bit sweet too, a sweetness just exactly out of reach, but mostly soap. I'm struggling really hard to not find such a negative word, but I can't. I'm not entirely certain I'd like pumpkin pie if I was ever presented with it.
On recommendation from several people, I had the rest with a bit of milk.
That helped! It took the odd note off the aroma. It was pretty much the same, just toned down. I liked the taste a lot better too. The soapiness dissappeared. The milk did get a slightly sour note, which was definitely not because it was getting bad because I tested it first.
While I was at it, I tried adding a bit of cane sugar too. That was nice too. I don't know if maybe I'm just drowning out the flavour this way, but for me this works.
But I still don't think I like pumpkin pie much.Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:58:16 -0500/teas/Pumpkin%20Pie%20Flavored%20Black/5234-pumpkin-pie-flavored-black?post=20041
Black Satin from 52teasThis is the first decent cup of tea I've had AAAAAALL DAY! First there was the bagged stuff in the travel mug, then there was the taste of Ceylon Pekoe which had been forgotten and steeped for some 2½ *cough*hours*cough*. Yuck oh yuck oh double yuck! Made a new pot of that, nearly forgot that too so it got ten minutes, but it was somewhat drinkable and I made do with it.
Now I'm home, I've had dinner and I've had dessert. Now I want tea. I saw the label on the tin among the many tins on the table and thought, "Yes!"
The more I have of this, the more the liquorice root is coming out. I think I'll give the rating an itty bitty push upwards.Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:33:47 -0500/teas/Black%20Satin/6477-black-satin?post=20141
Gunpowder from UnknownI'm in a green mood, so I grabbed this tin and made me a pot. Now that I've taken the first couple of sips, I suddenly remember that I also own a rather nice Chun Mee, and I'd actually rather have had a pot of that.
*sigh*
It's probably just as well, because I have discovered that I didn't rinse the pot out properly before brewing. My gunpowder has gained a weak note of liquorice root from yesterday's Black Satin.
Interesting, actually. It adds an element of surprise to it. 'Ahhh green tea... wait, what's that?' If I had any liquorice root, it might be fun to experiment with.Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:49:54 -0500/teas/Gunpowder/2312-gunpowder?post=20185
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sGreen moods don't last long when you discover that the green you made wasn't the green you wanted. I was packing up tea samples for Jillian and Bethany (if she's still interested), and spotted this tin and decided I was really in an oolong mood now instead.
Mostly because whenever I see this tin I have to take the lid off for a couple of sniffs. Yummy.
I can definitely see myself stocking up on this again when it's gone and I'm beginning to dread the day when it is.Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:10:30 -0500/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=20186
Formosa Chun Mee (Organic) from Luka Te m.m.Ah Chun Mee, the green tea I really wanted yesterday. Remembered that today and made me a small pot.
I like the leaves in this one and how they're twisted. They're cute!
I'm currently waiting for the second infusion to steep. It's very light in colour compared to the first one, but it's nice all the same. I'm not sure how many steeps I think it's possible get out of this one though. I think maybe one or two others, but the first time around was definitely the best.
(Additionally, is one of you trying to add me as a chatbuddy on Gmail? I've posted my email address freely here a few times, but I can't think of anywhere else someone might have come across it as I use a different address for other things.
Anyway, if it's one of you, could you drop me a comment, please? Otherwise I'll just say no. I'd rather not have random strangers on my chat list....)Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:37:46 -0500/teas/Formosa%20Chun%20Mee%20(Organic)/5992-formosa-chun-mee-organic?post=20249
Earl Grey with Blue Cornflowers from Luka Te m.m.Grinnyguy posted about Earl Grey. I got a fit of inspiration even though Earl Grey is normally not my first choice. Most days I find it kind of dull and every day-ish. Maybe a little overrated as a type. Classics don't seem to hold much appeal to me.
It's got a strong bergamot smell. That slightly bitter citrus-y smell that I'm learning to recognise. Kind of sweet, but not the way oranges are, and it's not a bitterness like the kind you find in grapefruits. It's sort of prickly and when you know what you're looking for, probably fairly easily recognisable.
Apart from when I'm at Lexitus', the last time I had Earl Grey was a few weeks ago when I was at the cafe and they gave me the wrong tea. I remember finding that one rather too bitter and smelling strongly of citrus as soon as I poured. This one is very much more controlled when it comes to citrus scent. It's there, clearly, when you smell it, but it doesn't invade your nostrils when your nose is an arm's length away.
Citrusy, but not sour and without making you feel like it might as well have been a lemon tea. It's got just a touch of bitterness on the swallow, but not nearly as much as the presumed Kusmi had. Of course I haven't brewed this as strongly as they did that day in the cafe.
As for the cornflowers, I can't pick them out in the flavour, so I don't know if they actually have any effect on it at all, or if they're just there for show. I like to think that they smooth it out some, but even if they are just there for show though, I'd still get this version. Just because they're pretty.
My local shop beats Kusmi by several horse lenghts.Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:52:40 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey%20with%20Blue%20Cornflowers/6070-earl-grey-with-blue-cornflowers?post=20262
English Breakfast Blend from British Colonial Tea EmpireARGH! I _knew_ I should have copied my text before hitting post seeing as I had been poking about with other stuff on the site in a different tab, but I forgot! Starting over then.
I _think_ this was the name of the brand. I asked in the cafe, but couldn't write it down at the time and I thought I'd be able to remember. Now I'm a bit uncertain and I can't seem to find anything about it online. So if anybody is familar with the brand, feel free to correct me.
Anyway. My colleague and I finally got to go to Sofie's Parents, our favourite cafe in the city after work today. You may remember I tried to get their English Breakfast blend a couple of weeks ago and was served a rather disappointing Earl Grey instead. Well, today we did manage to successfully get a large pot of the English Breakfast Blend. The details given about it said that it was a mix of Ceylon, Assam and Kenyan teas. (The latter surprised me somewhat. I thought it was more often Keemun in EBBs?)
You should have seen the amount of leaves used when they made this! It was amazing! I don't know what they had been thinking when preparing the tea, but something had definitely been going on in the kitchen because they don't usually try to steep some 25g of leaves at the same time. O.o It was our good luck that my colleague didn't want to risk it starting to get bitter so we took it up before the time they told us.
Firstly, the scent: Very strong honey note in this one. I like that in English Breakfast, and it's both a smell and a flavour note that I've always associated with English Breakfast. So that's a big win with me.
Secondly, flavour sans milk: It's got a touch of smoke. Not as rough as in Lapsang Souchong, but definitely some pricklyness there. We thought this was probably the Kenyan ingredient.
Thirdly, flavour with milk: Still a note of smoke, but the prickly is smoothed out by the milk. I can't actually decide if I liked it best with or without milk, but I'm leaning towards without.
Fourthly, development: As you know, tea continues to develop even after the leaves have been removed. This turned significantly darker and as it did, the Assam came out more, dominating the (assumed) Kenyan. I liked this. It kept the tea interesting.
All in all, I liked this a lot. (And you should have seen the piece of strawberry cake I had that tasted of real strawberries. OMG Cake Heaven!)
*Travelling Teabox Reminder!* Don't forget to send me your address at iarnvidia@gmail.com before *Dec. 31st* if you want to participate. There is a thread at the forum with all the details and guidelines.Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:36:00 -0500/teas/English%20Breakfast%20Blend/7152-english-breakfast-blend?post=20414
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.The problem with a celebration tea is that it's all too easy to think of things to celebrate. Today for example it's snowing on my city. The real deal! White stuff falling out of the sky! Winter, REAL winter, has come to Denmark at last. I hope it's snowing in Copenhagen too, just to give some of those state leaders from far away countries an experience. Some of them might never have seen snow before in real life.
This is my fortifying cup before going out in the winter weather (SNOW!!!) and getting the last of the presents. It's a bit understeeped today because I'm impatient and I wish I could say that it wasn't damaging it any, but it is a bit watery. At least with the cup I'm using today I couldn't drain the pot entirely, so I should be able to top it up with some more properly steeped tea.
Still good though.Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:23:08 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=20670
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.Christmas shopping is all finished and done (except one thing, Lexitus!) and now I'm in bad need of a cup of this to warm me up again.
I was _shocked_ at how little I had left! Someone must have been nicking it behind my back, it's just not okay! I should have stocked up on it while I was out anyway. Maybe one small pot's worth left.
I've grown quite addicted to this. A little while ago I had a cup of plain Lapsang Souchong, which I have otherwise loved, and suddenly it just seemed... less. Something was missing. There was just the smokyness and nothing else. I kept catching myself searching for the smoother, stronger base of the green tea and the English Breakfast and it just wasn't there. Plain Lapsang Souchong just doesn't cut it anymore, and here I am with nearly 100 g of the stuff.
This, though. This is the stuff. The smoke, the black base, and the green freshness. Yum. It's great for a cold winter's day. (And frankly, any other sort of day too)Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:24:27 -0500/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=20676
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.I saved the leaves from this morning on this one, and I'm switching tea-gears mid cup. I've just received some hugely bad family news, and I need a cup of this. Not in the way of a celebratory cup, but a comforting cup and a calming down cup, because I'm so angry right now.
I'm beginning to think I actually like the second steep of these leaves better than the first. It seems smoother and sweeter. More pat-on-the-head-everything's-going-to-be-okay like. Or is that just because I'm using it in this particular situation?
Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:41:33 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=20715
White Cucumber from Adagio TeasGoodmorning Steepsterites.
Word of the day is 'BRRRRRRRR!!!!'
I'm having an unplanned day off because my city looks like a christmas card (Look! http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iwBGrA_DuCCny_0D9mhQfw?feat=directlink and http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/AS7NtzJwc9yVtSMUwALKsw?feat=directlink)
and the train service is unreliable enough today that I got a bit worried about whether or not I'd be able to get home again if I managed to fight my way to work. So I gave up and went home. It's actually more or a hot cocoa day rather than a tea day, but I haven't got any milk, and hot cocoa made on water is not worth the effort.
What better time than now to give this white cucumber stuff that Ricky sent me a whirl?
The leaves look fairly normal and of a good size. Some of them are pretty dark. I have to say I agree with other reviewers though. They absolutely reek! They smell like pickles and vinegar and something kind of chemical and it's the same thing in the finished brew. I was rather imagining fresh cucumbers. Not pickled ones.
The colour is sort of yellow with the slightest hint of green, and surprisingly, because of the smell, it actually tastes more like fresh cucumbers than it does of pickles. It's so weird! It's got that same sort of bitterness that cucumbers can have, especially in the peel, and I'm picking up a strong note of dill too. I'm always happiest with something that will leave me with a good aftertaste, but this is a bit much. My mouth tastes like I've just been chewing a wad of dill and it feels all green. If I go and look at my tongue in the mirror, I'd probably be surprised that it was still red. As it is, I keep catching myself searching for a note of fish that isn't there, of course.
I'm glad I only made one cup and it only got worse as it cooled. I'm so not a fan of this. Spitty! Spitty! I'm going to go and make something else to take the bad taste out of my mouth.Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:45:14 -0500/teas/White%20Cucumber/204-white-cucumber?post=20794
Blueberry from Adagio TeasThis is to kill the last dill remnants from that awful cucumber stuff. Unfortunately this is also the last of my tin. I made it a bit stronger than usually because there wasn't enough leaves left for a small pot if I didn't.
Didn't hurt it any, though. If anything the blueberry flavour is even more clear, making me wonder if I've actually been making it too weak before?
The first few sips tasted a bit odd, mingling with the lingering aftertaste from the white cucumber. Dill/cucumbers + blueberries = bad match. Just saying. Half a cup down now though, and it's helping considerably.
I need to get some more blueberry tea. I've never met a blueberry I didn't like. Now I get to explore various brands and shops that are more readily available to me than Adagio is.Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:57:43 -0500/teas/Blueberry/72-blueberry?post=20800
Apricot from Adagio TeasAnother one bites the dust. Like with the blueberry, it's a bit stronger than I would normally have made it because of the amount of leaves I had left.
I see I gave it a mediocre rating, and that sort of thing always surprises me with a fruit tea. Did I really mean that? I have learned to start trusting myself with this though. Sometimes I push the rating up, but most times it's left alone.
It's steeping now and the pot is standing with the lid off (because I'm lazy and I can't be bothered to search for it) about an arm's lenght away and I can smell apricot all the way over here.
Yes, I was right about the rating. Again. It tastes like apricots, yes. But it's a sort of creamy kind of apricot flavour. It actually tastes like there's milk in it and there isn't. It's the wrong sort of sweet. I could have wished for some freshness. So while it does have apricot flavour, fresh apricots don't taste like this.Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:07:12 -0500/teas/Apricot/69-apricot?post=20801
Vanilla Caramel from CustomAnd another gone and another gone, another one bites the dust. This time Adagio's vanilla that got the last act of mercy. I didn't even have a full teaspoon left of this. Nearly but not quite, so I decided to mix it with the caramel from Luka, my local shop, which is a mix I know to be awesome. Since I usually do it half and half and couldn't do that this time, I tried adding little vanilla sugar to the mix. I tell you, it feels utterly weird to stand there and stir a teapot!
I have no clue how that last additive will influence the flavour. I figure the worst that can happen is it's a little sweeter than usual. I need to try the vanilla tea from my local shop and see if it's better than Adagio's. I liked Adagio's to begin with but have found myself using it primarily to mix into other stuff.
Probably shouldn't have added the vanilla sugar. It's quite vanilla heavy now and the caramel is a bit overpowered. Now whether this is because I used too much vanilla sugar or if it was because adding just doesn't work, I can't really know.
It's still delicious, though.
For those of you who own Adagio's vanilla and find it a bit lacking in the vanilla department, perhaps a little bit of vanilla sugar can bring it out a bit more?Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:28:40 -0500/teas/Vanilla%20Caramel/6354-vanilla-caramel?post=20805
Nepal Top Oolong from A C Perch'sI needed a plain tea after all those flavoured once earlier today. I made this one somewhat stronger than I normally do in the hopes that it might give the flavour, and particularly the aftertaste a bit more punch.
It didn't really work.
All I got out of it was a whole lot of astringency and that kind of hay-like, flowery, prickly sort of flavour that you get when something is severely oversteeped or too strong.
This also spares me trying out that uber-long steeping, or stewing rather, of oolongs. I sincerely doubt it would be something I would like.Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:21:42 -0500/teas/Nepal%20Top%20Oolong/4585-nepal-top-oolong?post=20842
Apple, Cinnamon & Raisin from TwiningsI don't actually like this much. I'm not a very big fan of cinnamon in tea and I don't really care all that much for raisins, but it's a bag so it's quick and it seemed the 'warmest' choice I had in those criteria.
I've been outside, giving my ruler some fresh air. Turns out my 30cm estimate was pretty accurate. And it's STILL snowing. Great big flakes now. Yes, I whimped out when faced with snow and train delays again. I love the snow and I love getting a day off, but I kind of hate getting the day off because of this. It always comes with a side of guilt. Maybe the train would have come if I had just waited five more minutes before giving up. Other countries have way more snow than us regularly and they get by. Is 30 cm _really_ that much? And so on and so forth. I know I'd be faced with O.o looks if I'd shown up at work, but _still!_ (I did actually manage that once. 45 minutes late and nobody said, "Hi, good to see you arrive safely!" or even "About time you showed up!" All I got was " _You're_ here?!!! What are you, _NUTS_???" Nice to know they care.)
It's pretty much just synthetic cinnamon that lacks any sort of sweetness and sour apples. I can't find any raisins at all. Given the fact that as mentioned I don't care much for raisins most of the time, I can't really make myself see this as an all that bad thing.
The tea itself is... *peeks into cup* ... are we ABSOLUTELY sure there IS any tea in this? *checks box* They claim there is. I'll give them the benefit of doubt.
All that said, it IS a mass-production tea in relatively cheap bags, so of course it's a different quality than what I'm otherwise used to. I'm rating it seen in that light and disregarding most of my other things instead of trying to compare them, because they're worlds apart.Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:39:02 -0500/teas/Apple,%20Cinnamon%20&%20Raisin/2896-apple-cinnamon-and-raisin?post=20938
Melon from PickwickStill snowing. Still bagging it.
I can't get warm. Brrrrrrrr! Just trying for a bit of variety here. Seeing as I log _everything_ in my OCDness, you can probably expect a load of quick bag-logs like this while I'm trying to make my body temperature normal again. I'm already cuddling up under my duvet in the sofa.
This one always surprises me a bit when I taste it. How melon-like it is. How dry a sort of flavour it is. How clear a picture I get in my head of melons when I taste it. Hopefully it can also warm me up.Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:46:46 -0500/teas/Melon/6035-melon?post=20939
Soft Fruitea from PickwickI've napped, so I don't know if it's _still_ snowing or snowing _again_ either way, it sure is adding up out there. Good thing about naps though is that you get warm! Finally.
This is just another one for the sake of variation, and I'm still lazy so I'm still bagging it. On top of that it's pretty oversteeped because I forgot about it. Apart from it going somewhat lukewarm, it hasn't been damaged though. The cardboard flavour is fully intactFri, 18 Dec 2009 08:49:39 -0500/teas/Soft%20Fruitea/6016-soft-fruitea?post=20941
Chocolate from Adagio TeasWith a twist today. I substituted one quarter of the leaves with Adagio's cinnamon black. It turned out to be a very nice combination. I'm glad I didn't add more cinnamon than I did because I think that would have overpowered the chocolate.
Well. I say chococlate, but really it's more cocoa than it's chocolate, I think.
As mentioned, though, a nice combination, which seems pretty nicely balanced between the two flavours if I do say so myself. I think a little bit of milk would have suited it too, smoothing it out a bit, but I didn't have any so someone else will have to test that for me.
Weirdly, it's also a combination that works tolerably well with this I-need-to-use-these-leeks-for-something-soon-improvisation-surprise-soup that I'm having for dinner.
Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:37:00 -0500/teas/Chocolate/75-chocolate?post=20979
Green Cactus from Den Lille TebutikI was asked once, "what does cactus taste like?" and I floundered wildly to come up with an answer. I still don't know how to describe. I could recognise it instantly; it's even one of those flavours that it's easy to imagine when you don't have it, but I don't really know how to describe it.
It's sort of sweet and sort of fruity but not like your ordinary sweet and fruity. It has that cool sensation that you also find in mint and it has a certain freshness to it so it doesn't get cloying. And a touch of fennel(*) too.
My leaves of this are fairly old and have been standing forgotten in the cupboard for a long time, so I can't really remember how much flavour it had to begin with but I think it must have faded some. There isn't all that much of the added flavour left in it, except in the aroma, but the green tea it's based on is coming out loud and clear. It doesn't say what the base is, but I'm guessing it's probably Sencha, since the vast majority of the green flavoured teas in that particular shop are based on Sencha. Or at least they were at the time I bought it.
It's been ages and ages since I've had a pure Sencha (that I knew for sure was Sencha) so I can't really judge it on flavour. Only an educated guess. Due to the nature of the cup, i can't tell you about the colouring of the liquid and looking at it as it's poured doesn't really give a very accurate picture. It did look a tiny bit neon-green though. Just the slightest hint.
The taste is definitely different from my chinese and taiwanese greens too. It doesn't taste as _green_, kind of. As in, it doesn't taste like it's not a green tea, it just doesn't invoke the same images of things that are green while drinking it. Or something. Gosh, that sounds ridiculous, but I can't figure out how else to explain it. It reminds me very strongly of Genmaicha, to the point where I have to remind myself that it isn't actually Genmaicha. Does any of this sound Sencha-ish to those of you who have more experience with Sencha?
.(*) Fennel, btw, might be an interesting flavour in a green or white tea, come to think of it... Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:26:28 -0500/teas/Green%20Cactus/1160-green-cactus?post=20997
Green Cactus from Den Lille TebutikSecond steep of last night's leaves of this.
I am not impressed. It's much weaker now and watery. The last of the already very faded cactus flavour is completely gone and, weirdly, it has gained a note of something almost chamomile-ish instead.
I'm not quite done with it yet, though, so I'm making myself a new pot, using the last of the leaves I had.
Since I bought this one, the shop has moved twice and switched owners at least once, so it's pretty ancient. Had the leaves been fresher, they might have held up to the resteep better. I've seen that they have a green cactus _flower_ tea on their website now, which they're calling _an interesting newcomer_, so now I'm not sure if this particular tea that I've got has been discontinued and brought back or if it's a new but similar tea. Mine doesn't say anything about flowers. Could be either.
The rate I'm cleaning up nearly empty tins these days, I'll have to do some shopping before I send the travelling teabox out, or the first person on the list is in for a bit of a disappointment! O.oSat, 19 Dec 2009 05:12:42 -0500/teas/Green%20Cactus/1160-green-cactus?post=21090
Silver Tips Imperial Darjeeling from MANTRA ESTUDIOWanted: A nice, plain black tea with some good substance to the flavour.
Has: A white Darjeeling with a delicate flavour and a flowery note.
How did this happen? Your guess is as good as mine.Sat, 19 Dec 2009 07:44:30 -0500/teas/Silver%20Tips%20Imperial%20Darjeeling/1137-silver-tips-imperial-darjeeling?post=21092
Chocolate Puerh from Numi Organic TeaInsteresting letter from Jillian in my letterbox today!
I've been trying to figure out what to try first and decided I was more interested in this. When I sent Jillian my 'wishlist' of things I'd like to try from her cupboard, this one mostly caught me by being pu-ehr, and I haven't had any of that in ages, and a flavoured one at that, which I've _never_ had. Little difficult for me to imagine flavoured pu-ehr, for some reason. But then, I initially felt the same way about green, white and oolong too and I can't come up with a logical reason on why it shouldn't be possible. Anyway, I didn't pay attention to what else was in it at the time, so it's not until now that I notice it has rooibos in it. That's a bit worrisome, since I don't really care much for that... Oh well, if you don't try, you can't win, so here we go!
It's bagged and the bag smells like christmas biscuits! Do I have to drink it? Can't I just sit here and sniff the bag? It seems almost a shame to get it wet. On the other hand, if I did just sit around, sniffing the bag, sooner or later I'd forget to pay attention and try to take a bite. Reflex, see.
Luckily, after steeping, it still smells like that. Chocolate and cinnamon are the dominant smells, and underneath it the earthiness of pu-ehr. It seems very dark in colour for a pu-ehr. I can't really spot that reddish brown colour that it usually gets, but then that might be because the cup I'm using isn't the best for looking at the colour.
The little satchel the bag was in says that the chocolate might sink to the bottom of the cup, so I'm giving it a little stir before tasting.
It tastes like sweets! Chocolatey and cinnamony like the blend I made yesterday (fate perhaps? Preparation for trying this?), but sweeter. I can pick up pretty much everything they say is in it, except possibly the nutmeg, but then I'm not really entirely certain which flavour I'm supposed to be looking for with that one. It's not a spice I ever use for anything at all in my kitchen. And to my great relief, although I can defintiely find the rooibos, it's only there to sort of add a little boost to the other flavours. If I hadn't known it was there, I wouldn't have noticed, but knowing that it is, I can tell what it does.
Great choice, me!Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:19:10 -0500/teas/Chocolate%20Puerh/2891-chocolate-puerh?post=21097
Yunnan Jig from Adagio TeasAnother Jillian tea!
The leaves are pretty! They're golden yellow, large and twisted. The smell mildly smokey. Long ago I had a Golden Yunnan that I thought was rather smokey in flavour, but since then whenever I've mentioned that I have been met with disbelief, until I finally began to think I was remembering it wrong since I seemed to be the only person in the world ever to have thought it was smokey. I'm also picking up a note of honey, a really flavourful kind of honey so strong that when you eat it you almost have to cough.
That note goes quite well with the honey-golden colour of the brew. The aroma after steeping is the same kind of honey, but not so much on the smoke. It's just to throw you off, really. You almost expect to get a mouthful of liquid honey and instead you get a prickly mouthful of smoke. I still agree with myself that it's a very smoky tea. I am getting a small note of honey, but not nearly to the extent that I would have thought from the aroma.
I'm trying to find the peppery note that people have been talking about and so far I'm failing. I get some pricklyness, but that's from the smoke I think. I can't find any pepper.
Back in ancient prehistoric times when I last had a plain yunnan, I remember not liking it much. I believe my tastes have changed. I think it's a type I'll have to stock up on again next year. It's not one that I think is OMG fantastic! But it's a nice one to have in the cupboard.Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:36:56 -0500/teas/Yunnan%20Jig/64-yunnan-jig?post=21114
Yunnan Jig from Adagio TeasI'm a lazy freezing bugger this morning, so we're going to see how this holds up to a resteep. I'm not expecting miracles here, but if it doesn't work then what have I actually wasted other than time and half a liter of water? Might as well give it a shot.
After I wrote mine yesterday, I've been looking through what other people have said about it. I'm glad I'm not the only one to pick up that honey note, because for me it's really strong and I couldn't immediately recall anybody having mentioned it before. One person said that it was also quite nice when sweetened with honey, so if the resteep works to my satisfaction, I will try that. Otherwise I have enough leaves left for one more pot, or most of one.
Being impatient, I've been sniffing at the pot. The smoke, or pepper, (because I really think it's the same flavour that people recognise differently. For me it's smoke. Not even remotely as strong as in Lapsang Souchong, but still smoke.) seems to be a little diminished but the honey is as strong as ever.
The colour looks the same too. Possibly a little darker, which sort of surprised me. It seems logical that resteeps should provide a gradully lighter colour.
It's like an entirely different tea! I'm getting a strong honey note out of it and the smoke or pepper or whatever is almost entirely gone. It's just there in the finish, giving the honey some sparkles. I can almost _almost_ recognise it more as pepper than as smoke here. I don't think it's _quite_ pepper but it's more pepper at this point than it's smoke. It's got the same sort of prickling sensation on the tip of the tongue, whereas smoke, I think, is more prickly all over the mouth. Does this even make sense?
At any rate, yes, Yunnan Jig holds up nicely to a resteep.Sun, 20 Dec 2009 05:25:13 -0500/teas/Yunnan%20Jig/64-yunnan-jig?post=21174
Pumpkin Pie Flavored Black from 52teasI'm still a freezing bugger, so I went to make some fresh tea and then I spotted this one on the table.
A warm sort of flavour. Perfect.
I remember liking it best with milk, but I don't have any. I'll have to do without.
I just realised when I poured that there were a couple of Yunnan Jig leaves still in the cup that I forgot to rinse out. Doesn't seem to have made any difference though.
Added a bit of cane sugar to it. Not a lot, just a pinch. Maybe it's the sugar or maybe it's just because I really needed a warm flavour like this right now, but I'm feeling generous today so I'm upping the rating a bit.Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:00:52 -0500/teas/Pumpkin%20Pie%20Flavored%20Black/5234-pumpkin-pie-flavored-black?post=21176
Black Satin from 52teasIn order to try and prevent myself from yumming up this whole entire big bag of licorice of the peculiar scandinavian kind containing ammonium chloride that the majority of you lot would likely find completely inedible, I have made me a pot of this tea. It's probably much less likely of making me sick as I certainly would be if I ate all that licorice. Big bag! Also, I have realised that not drinking it because I don't want to run out is stupid, because they I'm not getting any of it _anyway_.
Aaaaahhhh!!!
Yes, this is much better, both for my health, my teeth, and my appetite when dinnertime comes. :)
On a scale from Yum to YumYumYumYumYum, I'll give it four Yums.Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:56:27 -0500/teas/Black%20Satin/6477-black-satin?post=21184
Passionfruit from Adagio TeasWotcher, watchers!
I have new followers, yay! This is due to my OCD-ish adding people left, right and center, but it still counts. Yes, I am actually this shallow.
I was in the mood for a citrusy tea. Didn't have one. The closest I get is a net of oranges, and those are for work lunches. Well, I do have an Earl Grey thing, but that's a different sort of mood. I figured that, while passion fruit isn't a citrus fruit at all, this was the closest to that mood that I could get.
When I got the lid off I discover that the sample tin was nearly full! I can't have used it more than twice. Tops. Why is that? I distinctly remember having liked it. But maybe 'liking it' and 'being memorable' just aren't really the same thing at all.
It's good. I can taste a lot of passion fruit, but it's a flavour that I think suits the tea, and it definitely works as a substitute when I would really rather have had something with orangey. Passion fruit just aren't really one of my favourite fruits at all, though, which is the only reason I'm not rating this a bit higher.Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:12:35 -0500/teas/Passionfruit/96-passionfruit?post=21312
green tea with orange and peppermint from PickwickO HAI THAR SNOWSTORM!
The very day I decide that it's no longer necessary to check the weather situation before leaving for work, we get a snowstorm that I, obviously, didn't know about. Lovely. Left 1½ hours earlier from work and it took twice as long as ususally to get home. Luckily I have tomorrow off, but I'm not really sure how easy it'll be to get to my parents' house on thursday... We'll see. No amount of snow can get between me and a roasted duck without having to put up a fight!
I'm pooped now, so I've been spending an hour debating with myself if I was too lazy to make a proper pot or not. Eventually I decided on a compromise. I'll bag it first, and then make a proper pot afterwards when I've got some energy back. (I hope!)
I just added this ancient little forgotten thing to my cupboard. I must have forgotten it when I added everything else. And hey, look! I _did_ have something with oranges!
It's a bit oversteeped because I nearly forgot about it, but the smell doesn't reveal any damage. The colour is a kind of murky yellow, and I can sort of smell both orange and peppermint. Sort of, because they're both very synthetic smelling smells.
Wow. Even oversteeped and with one bag in a relatively small cup, it still tastes kind of watery and thin. It's totally drinkable, but it's not something that I would ever recommend.
It's kind of strange because when I take a sip, I either get the two (still synthetic) flavouring agents, _OR_ I get a substandard green tea flavour. But never both at once. It's a guessing game in a cup. I got peppermint on this sip. What will I get on the next sip. Hands up those who think substandard green tea!Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:30:25 -0500/teas/green%20tea%20with%20orange%20and%20peppermint/7558-green-tea-with-orange-and-peppermint?post=21395
Iron Goddess of Mercy from Granville Island Tea CoA proper pot of tea now, another Jillian tea.
I suggested this one on my 'wishlist' for her not because I was wildly curious about it, but because Tie Kuan Yin (which this is) is my most favourite type of oolong ever. I more or less knew what I would get, but I just couldn't pass it over without at least asking.
The leaves look a bit darker than I remember of this type of oolong, but then I remembered that when I've bought it from Teaspring in the past, I've always gone for the jade variety. So the leaf difference is pretty obvious then, isn't it? They have a slightly smoky note to the smell. Not very much, just a little bit. Apart from that they smell fresh. Leafy. Planty. A living plant, not a dead leaf.
It brews up very light in colour and almost lime-green. I checked Jillians notes briefly and since she seems to have used a shorter steeping time than I normally would I thought it best to follow suit on the first time. There is plenty of aroma though. A lovely, leafy, almost floral smell that makes me think green thoughts. (Not green tea thoughts, just thoughts that are green. This is a very difficult concept to explain. Sometimes it's just as if thoughts have colours.)
Mmmm yummy! I suddenly understand, I think, what you lot mean when you say something has a baked taste. That's another one that I've seen a lot of people use, and I've never been able to put my head around it. I totally get it now, I think. There is a lot of it. It both makes me think of baked goods and it also makes me think of leaves and greenery, and I can't decide which is more dominant. And bees. This tea tastes sort of like how bees look. Please don't make me try to explain that.
Yes, it's summerly and springly and still my favourite type oolong in the whole world.Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:46:36 -0500/teas/Iron%20Goddess%20of%20Mercy/5290-iron-goddess-of-mercy?post=21412
Iron Goddess of Mercy from Granville Island Tea CoThird steep of yesterdays leaves. It's a mix of one part having tons of pre-christmas stuff to do, one part being lazy and one part wish to wring as much out of these leaves as I can.
First cup is a bit thin. It could have done with a 'crutch' or a slightly longer steep. The second cup will invariably get that, given my brewing method of leaving the leaves loose in the pot, so we'll see if it makes a difference.
I would like to say that the tea had gained a sweet note, but to be honest I think that's just the after-effects of the piece of chocolate I just ate...
Second cup with a significantly longer steep is better. It still has some of that baked flavour left, but I want to repeat the statement that it tastes like how bees look, because I'm picking up a small note of strong honey underneath.
Okay, that's the morning tea. I'm going to get started on a to-do list and then my numerous chores.Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:29:48 -0500/teas/Iron%20Goddess%20of%20Mercy/5290-iron-goddess-of-mercy?post=21501
Aniseed from Luka Te m.m.All those chores I mentioned this morning? Yeah uh... um.... uh....
In other news, I've made me a pot of this aniseed tea that I had nearly forgotten I had. I tried to clean up the table in the kitchen where tins migrate to as I use them, and I got distracted. I tried, though. Isn't that good enough?
It's the closest thing I've got to the Black Satin from 52teas. Maybe I can make do with this when the Black Satin runs out. Maybe. It's not as good.
On a whim today I added a pinch of peppermint to the pot. It's both good and bad. I can't actually decide if the peppermint taste doesn't fit in at all, or if I think it's really nice. I'm leaning towards a nice addition that doesn't fit in. The aniseed and peppermint are sort of competing for attention on the tongue which brings about a pretty strange result.
Well, we've tried that. Next time I think I'll leave out the peppermint. Strange idea to add it anyway.Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:44:39 -0500/teas/Aniseed/5977-aniseed?post=21532
Formosa Chun Mee (Organic) from Luka Te m.m.Slightly backlogged. I had a pot of this while wrapping the last christmas gifts, getting tangled up in the stupid ribbon, hopefully not mislabeling anything and packing and re-packing my suitcase because it didn't fit. Why did I buy such heavy and large gifts???
Great for an up-and-at-'em tea, though. I probably should have made it earlier, I might have got something done of my todo list...Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:55:50 -0500/teas/Formosa%20Chun%20Mee%20(Organic)/5992-formosa-chun-mee-organic?post=21572
Persian Earl Grey from LiptonGoodmorning Steepsterites, and merry christmas to those of you who celebrate.
This year I got a tea-related present. A set of a mug, a small box of biscuits, a small tin with five teabags of green tea and a tea measuring spoon. I can't wait until I get home on sunday so I can try it out. (If I can figure out what brand it's supposed to be)
Anyway, this is a backlog from last night after the present opening was over. Over here in Denmark we are so backwards and impatient that we open our presents on the 24th in the evening. My parents have a sampler pack and one was just picked at random.
Nothing special really. Lipton's lemony tasting Earl Grey with some jasmine, I think, thrown in. I can't check, but it tasted like jasmine to me, so that's what I think it was. Drinkable although somewhat perfumed.Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:39:37 -0500/teas/Persian%20Earl%20Grey/7119-persian-earl-grey?post=21686
Chocolate Puerh from Numi Organic TeaAlso backlog. Had the second bag of this yesterday while waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive. It was of course still very yummy, but somewhat overshadowed by the hope that it would be dinnertime soon because I was starving half to death at the time. It went really well with my mother's brown biscuits and vanilla hoops, though.
I've saved the bag since it was only used once for one cup, so I'm trying out a resteep of it for breakfast this morning.
*ETA:* Resteep was successful. It could probably have handled one more, but I didn't want to keep saving the bag. My mother already seemed to think it was slightly odd that I had saved it in the first place.Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:49:31 -0500/teas/Chocolate%20Puerh/2891-chocolate-puerh?post=21687
Raspberry Chocolate from CustomHome again! At last! Visiting family is nice and all, but nothing really beats coming home and sitting down in your own furniture with your own door closed behind you and just... breathe... out.
And now I just needed some good honest solid invigorating proper tea. And then I make this mix of Adagio's Chocolate and Adagio's Raspberry in more or less equal measure. Yeah, I can't really see any logic in the choice either, but there you are.
I could have sworn I had tried this mix before, but I couldn't seem to find it in my logs. I must have been confusing it with something else.
It smells mostly of chocolate. Milk chocolate actually. I think the raspberry is sort of smoothing it out and adding sweetness, although it doesn't actually smell like actual raspberries the way the dry leaves do.
While the smell is awesome, the taste is kind of watery. With that sort of smell I was expecting something more viscous like milk, so the first mouthful actually seemed kind of watery. It tastes quite nice but just not of chocolate. Or of raspberry, really. It's like it's sort of cancelling itself out.
I really can't understand if I haven't done this before, though!Sun, 27 Dec 2009 09:29:50 -0500/teas/Raspberry%20Chocolate/7764-raspberry-chocolate?post=21849
Oolong tea candy from UnknownI may be pushing the limits with this one. I debated whether or not it belonged on the board or in one of my own posts, but eventually I decided that since it's made of primarily real tea and it's built pretty much like my other posts so here it is.
Once upon a time I was in a travelling teabox, the very same that inspired the one I'm organising here (*note! Sign up for the Travelling Teabox by emailing address and steepster username to me at iarnvidia@gmail.com before dec 31st! Guidelines for participation can be found in this thread (http://steepster.com/discuss/102-travelling-teabox) on the board*) and someone added these candies that I nabbed a couple of. Two red ginseng candies from Korea, containing sugar, maltose, red korean ginseng chunks, raw honey and peppermint, and two oolong tea candies from god knows where in Asia and containing oolong tea, maltose and sugar. (There were also a couple of maple candies which I've eaten long ago)
I've never had the guts to try either of these, but tonight I happened across them and I was feeling brave. It's a sort of greenish dark grey colour and it smells vaguely of tea. It definitely does taste like a sweetened proper oolong tea, though. It's like a dry cup of tea. It's like.... sucking on the leaves after brewing. It tastes like the inside of the pot smells after a number of good steeps. I wish I could get my hands on more of these, because they're really kinda yummy! One is definitely enough, but I could get addicted to these things.
(The ginseng ones didn't actually have tea in them, smelled rather bad, and tasted worse... it was like sucking on a bit of dry toothpaste. The less said about those the better.)Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:43:03 -0500/teas/Oolong%20tea%20candy/7785-oolong-tea-candy?post=21889
Orange Jasmine from Mighty Leaf TeaI found a swap package from Bethany in my letterbox yesterday when I came home from work. I've spent the time since at war with myself over which one to try first. Eventually I resorted to Ippy-Dippy and landed on this.
Quite fitting actually since I was wanting something orange-y recently and didn't really have any.
I forgot to take a look at the dry leaves before brewing, so you'll have to do with out. After steeping, though, they smell sweetly floral. Like jasmine and just a touch of sweetness from the orange. The tea itself smells pretty much the same way, just stronger and sweeter. It kind of reminds me of orange chocolate. It's got a nice clear and deep amber colour in the cup.
The taste is like sweet oranges. Almost orange juice-y but with the floral notes of the jasmine just underneath. I like how the jasmine is understated in this one. I'm still holding on to that orange chocolate impression too. I swear I haven't added any sweetening agent to the cup, but it tastes like there's something there. Don't know what it is, but it's not sugar. I'm leaning sort of towards almonds, which I actually think would fit an orange quite nicely.
If I taste really carefully I can pick up the tea itself underneath too. Sort of nutty and with that special sort of flavour that puts me in mind of an oolong. I like this, but I made a large pot and I'm not entirely certain I'll like the last cup as much as I liked the first one.
And the best of it all, guess what! I just discovered that Mighty Leaf has a swedish website too that ships to ALL of Scandinavia! I expect it's probably somewhat smaller than the american site, like the two sites that Adagio has, one for America and one for Europe, but still. For the freaking win! WOOT! I shall decipher the swedish and have a closer look at that later.
*ETA:* I've realised what the sweet stuff in it is. It's vanilla. And lots of it too. I think I could have lived without the vanilla. At least in this quantity.Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:33:47 -0500/teas/Orange%20Jasmine/874-orange-jasmine?post=22077
Black Frost from The Simple LeafAnother Bethany tea. I remember picking this one for my wishlist for her, because I have never had tea from the Nilgiri region before. I have no clue what to expect, but I'm expecting something akin to Ceylon, since that's relatively close.
It's got a nice golden colour and a very grassy aroma, almost like a newly mowed lawn. A spicier than that, though. Underneath it I'm picking up a sweet note, almost caramel-like, and all in all, it's reminding me more of Darjeeling than it does of Ceylon. Or both maybe. Like a middle thing between Darjeeling and Ceylon. I'm not really sure, I change my mind every time I sniff it.
It's very vegetal in flavour and very sweet in an almost sour-like way. Like citrus-fruit, without actually having even a hint of a citrus flavour. It tastes kind of green the same way that a Darjeeling can taste green and it definitely doesn't remind me of Ceylon in flavour at all. It's almost like... like it's not quite ripe yet.
I'm not sure it's something I would seek out as a type all that eagerly again, but it's definitely drinkable.Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:26:00 -0500/teas/Black%20Frost/873-black-frost?post=22098
Orange Jasmine from Mighty Leaf TeaI made a second steep of this after having had a pot of it earlier today, and I stuck it in the fridge. It's chilled now, and it's _just_ right!Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:55:09 -0500/teas/Orange%20Jasmine/874-orange-jasmine?post=22119
Christmas from PickwickI'm bagging it this morning on purpose so that I can get my chores done instead of hanging around on Steepster all day, writing novel-length reviews.
In the season spirit I found this ancient bag of christmas tea which I figured I'd be able to drink without the urge to elaborate on to the usual extreme.
No clue what's in it, but being a christmas tea I think we can all make some educated guesses. I find that it smells like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and dentist. No, really. That smell when you walk into a dentist's clinic. There's something orange-y underneath also, I think.
It kind of tastes like dentist too. You know that stuff they use when they polish the teeth? Imagine that cinnamon-flavoured. I think, though, that if the bags hadn't been as old as they are, the dentist-y flavour would have been different, hopefully not present at all. I'll finish my cup because I _need_ it, but I can't rate it higher than this.Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:08:40 -0500/teas/Christmas/6290-christmas?post=22171
Russian Caravan from Tea CenterOkay, so tidy-ness plans for New Year's? Not gonna happen. But Lexitus should be used to the level of chaos that constitutes as 'tidy' around here, so he'll just have to deal with it. I've only had that foul dentisty christmas tea so far today and I want something proper.
So I'm jumping into the last of my Jillian-teas. I can't remember where or what the situation was, but Jillian said something somewhere at one point about what actually went into a russian caravan blend and it made me think that if you took a russian caravan and stuffed a measure of green tea in it, you would get something similar to my dearly beloved Gunpowder blend (which, again, has nothing to do with the green tea known as Gunpowder), so now I'm probably going to have a few difficulties with not imagining this containing an unknown green tea and comparing. Did any of this make sense?
It's a golden colour, much lighter than I had expected. I was expecting something reddish. The aroma is dominated by Lapsang Souchong and the smokiness. It's not as prickly as a plain Lapsang, but I still can't really find anything else in the aroma. Maybe the best way to describe it is that it smells a bit like a Lapsang Souchong with milk in it as opposed to a Lapsang straight up.
Nope, it's definitely nothing like my gunpowder blend (which has nothing to do with Gunpowder as in the green tea). This seems thinner and weaker for one thing. It doesn't have the same kick in the backside. I'm picking up some strong Darjeeling notes in the flavour and the Lapsang seems only barely there. I'm only getting the smokey prickly sensation in the very beginning of the sip and after that it's just Darjeeling.
It's been a good while since I've last had a russian caravan, but this tastes nothing like I remember it. It's good, yes. But it's not really what I was looking for.
*ETA:* The second cup, somewhat harder steeped, now THAT'S what I'm looking for. It's much more pronounced on the smoke and the Keemun is coming into play too instead of just being dominated by the grassy Darjeeling.
Note to self. Oversteep on purpose in future.Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:39:25 -0500/teas/Russian%20Caravan/5254-russian-caravan?post=22195
Queen's Blend from A C Perch'sHappy New Year Steepsterites.
We're at about 9.31pm now around here and my dad just called to wish us happy new year. Well. I say _us_. Mostly they seemed to want to talk to Lexitus. Right. I can see I'm no longer interesting. *huffs*
Anyway, we've just made tea. A brand new addition to my hmm larger than I thought collection. AC Perch's claim the queen actually drinks this.
It's got a reddish sort of colour, bit like a dark honey, and the aroma is very Earl Grey-ish. I can't seem to find any of the Gunpowder there.
The flavour is also mostly Earl Grey-ish, but it's got some sort of flowery more leafy kind of note to it which I'm assuming must be the Gunpowder. Somewhat astringent too which makes me wonder if it might have been better with a shorter steeping time.Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:22:08 -0500/teas/Queen's%20Blend/7934-queens-blend?post=22344
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.I got green tea for christmas from my little cousin and I got three kinds of tea from Lexitus also (and a cd and a book. I gave him tea and a cd. We gave each other nearly the same things.) I also have some Bethany-teas that I haven't tried yet.
But I've gone for this one because I'm too tired what with being social and having trampled around in the forest for two hours to be able to taste anything properly and that would be a shame with any of the new ones. I'm not currently in any sort of position to do them justice. So, something familiar and uncomplicated. This is the one I've logged the most times, so it seems a good choice. The fact that it's one of my all-time favourites, doesn't hurt either.
Also, Takgoti and Teaplz both had it recently (although a different brand) and both mentioned a note of walnuts. It was one of those things that just clicked for me when I read it. Of course there's a walnut note. I just have to check you know? And confirm it in my head.
Yup, there it is. And it's _loud_ too! I can't believe I never thought to connect it with walnuts before, it seems so obvious now.
Should also go well with Midsomer Murders which starts in five minutes or so. Whether it'll suit the ice cream flavour that I got (Chunky Monkey) is a different matter. Well, it has walnut bits in it, so maybe it'll be awesome in combination with the tea.Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:51:01 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=22541
Fujian Baroque from Adagio TeasOMG I just noticed this morning that Ricky's no-icon-uploaded-icon isn't actually, because it's mirrored! Never realised that before.
I'm feeling a little more human today, so I've made a pot of one of the remaining Bethany-teas.
I've tried sniffing the leaves, but they didn't really seem to have much in the way of a smell. Pouring a few out in my hand, all I could really smell was my skin. I'm fairly certain the leaves aren't actually supposed to smell like me, so I'm assuming it's actually me smelling like me.
My expectations based on other people's posts about this are dangerously high, so I'm a little worried about that. It's always better when it's the other way around. Low expectations -> pleasant surprise. I'm also dangerously impatient and tempted the start before it's really done steeping, even though I know that this rarely gives a good result.
Right, it's ready now. Cocoa notes, check! And I've only poured the first cup. Fruity notes, check! They're loud too. It smells a bit like when I was little and my mother made homemade jam from the blackcurrant bush we had in the garden.
What a surprising flavour! It's very fruity in flavour. I'm surprised that this is supposed to be a plain tea. It definitely tastes like there's been some sort of addition to it. I've checked the other teas that Bethany sent me, and I don't think it sounds like any of those have rubbed off.
First there's a little bit of a peppery sort of note, just a hint, and then there's the tart fruity flavour. I can't pick up the cocoa in the flavour, only in the aroma. Or maybe there is a small hint of it on the finish, but I'm not finding that on every sip, so I'm a little in doubt as to whether or not it's something that I'm convincing myself that I can find because I really want to find it.
It's good, but my enormously high expectations haven't really been fulfilled. I could have lived with the fruit note not being quite this strong.
(Are we _sure_ there isn't any flavouring in this?)
*ETA:* I've pushed the rating down again as I've been drinking. This fruityness is getting a bit... much.Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:57:00 -0500/teas/Fujian%20Baroque/51-fujian-baroque?post=22603
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.I have armed myself with my laptop, my atlas and a large cup of this tea (using the very last of my leaves, sadness!).
Guess what I'm doing now.Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:40:31 -0500/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=22608
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! After the sadness of using the last of this yesterday, I have today been fortunate enough to leave work some 3½ hours early due to extreme boredom. By around noon we had received the grand total of ONE sample, so we drew lots on who got to leave early.
On the way home, I stopped in at my local shop in the intention of stocking up on this one. I have stocked up. _BOY_, have I stocked up!!! O.o Turns out I'm pretty much the only person who buys it, so they took it off the shelf to be discontinued. They had some half of a sales tin left of it in the back, and the guy made me an offer I couldn't refuse. He let me buy the lot and when that runs out, all I have to do is stop in and say, and he'll order another lb for me the next time they order stuff home _AND_ he promised he would try to get a little discount for me. Everybody say *awesomesauce!!*
Yeah, I just bought 1½ lbs of tea. Of just one blend. Tin has been filled, Great Big Bag of Tea has been safely stowed away in a suitable place.
And I am celebrating with a cup. Right now.
Rating is already in top, but if it hadn't been, I'd have given it a notch upwards for awesome customer service.Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:31:04 -0500/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=22717
Organic Bolivian Green Tea from A C Perch'sThis is a Lexitus-tea that I got for Christmas. It's one that I saw on AC Perch's site and wanted to try and he remembered that, so yay him.
It's a very interesting tea for me, this one. My first ever tea from the South American continent so I have little clue as to what to expect taste- and quality-wise. AC Perch's say it's similar in flavour to Japanese greens, but I have little experience with them, so it doesn't help me much.
The leaves are large and very dark, so at first glance it looks like an average non-jade oolong. A fair amount of twigs in there too. The aroma of the dry leaves is fairly typical green. Not overwhelming in strength and sort of leafy sweet, a hint of nuttyness. Due to the leaf size it's a bit difficult to scoop so I've fallen back on the same way I scoop my Pai Mu Tan. For one small pot with farm animals on it: Plenty.
AC Perch's recommend a steeping time of six minutes, which I thought was rather a lot for a first go, so I've given it a little less, and since I can't empty the whole pot into this cup in one go, I'll get a second cup with a longer steeping time so I can compare there.
The colour is very light, and it's one of those funky coloured once that makes you wonder if it might actually be mildly radioactive. A pale yellow greenish sort of glow-in-the-dark colour. You know those white stars? It's nearly that colour. It has a very special smell too. There is an extremely sweet note to it that if I didn't know any better, I'd think there was a lot of sugar in it. It's kind of vanillaish, and maybe just a touch, the slightest little bit of something salty or seaweedish. It's very very very little though, and the primary aroma note is the vanillaish sweetness.
It tastes nothing like it smells. There's a typical green sort of nuttyness and not really any vanillaish sweetness. It's got a good kick to the flavour, a bit more woody than grassy. It's actually rather nice, but it's not a tea that you can keep on discovering. What you see is what you get.
The second cup, which had a longer steeping time (longer, probably, than the recommended six minutes) is darker and much more yellow in colour. The aroma is pretty much the same, but strangely enough it's not even remotely as strong as the aroma in the shorter steeped cup. The flavour has lost much of the nuttyness and gained quite a bit of astringency instead, and a sourish note too. I definitely liked the shorter steep better, but I feel that this bodes well for another couple of steeps.
*ETA:* Interesting. Second steep, although nearly forgotten and therefore severely oversteeped is actually still quite nice. It's got a bit of a bite, but nothing like the second round of the first steep. Mostly it's pretty smooth, I think.Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:27:20 -0500/teas/Organic%20Bolivian%20Green%20Tea/8095-organic-bolivian-green-tea?post=22908
Assam Deluxe FTGFOP from A C Perch'sGoodmorning Steepsterites.
The last of the three Lexitus-teas.
Somewhat oversteeped and gone a bit cold due to me being distracted, so I'll have to try again for a proper post and rating later.
The initial impression is promising though, and it may indeed live up to the 'Deluxe' and the *F*ar *T*oo *G*ood *F*or *O*rdinary *P*eople.Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:48:55 -0500/teas/Assam%20Deluxe%20FTGFOP/8117-assam-deluxe-ftgfop?post=23009
Green Tea from UnknownI've been gathering courage for this. After dropping a _certain package_ off at the post office I was attacked by sudden drowsiness. Initially I thought, "bad time for tasting a new tea", but then I thought, "half unconscious is probably a pretty good time for tasting a new and intimidating tea, actually..."
For Christmas I got this great big mug with the word 'tea' on it (which btw isn't very good to drink from. Too large and unwieldy), some biscuits, a tea measuring spoon and a tin with these bags in it. I can't find anything about which brand it supposedly is or which type of green tea it supposedly is.
It looks like dust and fannings in the bag, so I'm not getting my hopes up about the quality. Also, it smells rather a lot of salt water and seaweed. Like, when I smell it, I can almost hear the seagulls. It smells like something you ought to drink on a blustery day while standing in the dunes and looking out towards the sea.
Oh look, it's radioactive green tea again! That must mean there's a good chance for it being a japanese green, but then it quickly turned a much less amusing sunny yellow, so now I don't know.
It still smells pretty salt waterish, but not as blustery-day-in-the-dunes-ish. It's more like after you've gone home again and you're feeling all blown through, so you need something warm so you can feel like a person again, while waiting for dinner to be ready. The dinner bit comes from a buttery note in the aroma.
Okay, there's no way out, so I'm taking a sip. Aaaaaaaaand we're back on the beach. Very strong note of seaweed in the flavour here. To continue with the blustery-day-at-the-beach scenario, a fricking seagull just flew off with my dinner so now I have to make do with seaweed in a cup! And not that fancy sushi stuff either. I'm actually finding myself wondering what it would have tasted like if it had been brewed on lightly salted water instead of just tap water. (I'm not even remotely dumb enough to actually test that particular theory out, though)
All that said, I'm not actually completely disliking it, it's just different. It's a pleasant enough sort of taste once you've reconciled yourself with it. If you expected something sweet and grassy, you would be hugely unhappy with this. But if something like this was what you were expecting, it'd probably be quite nice. Having remembered to take a good sniff at the bags before steeping, I had a fairly good idea of what I was in for, so I'd probably give it around *65* or so.
This isn't the first unknown green tea I've had and others might need it too, so I'll refrain from using the rating slider.Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:49:21 -0500/teas/Green%20Tea/6297-green-tea?post=23044
Queen's Blend from A C Perch'sAC Perch's claim the Queen of Denmark actually drink this blend. Since they deliver to the royal household I see little reason not to believe them. This is a very awesome detail to know for a royalist-to-the-bone such as me.
I'm not really an Earl Grey fan. To me it's either so citrusy that you could have called it a lemon tea and fooled me easily or it's rather bitter. Bergamot is, to me, a fairly rough and throat-scratching sort of flavour. On top of that, it's too _common_. Tell someone to name the first tea they think of and I would be shocked if most of them didn't blurt out 'Earl Grey'. It's boring and every-day-ish when there are so very many other interesting teas out there.
Still, for some reason I made cup of this today. I think it was because I saw someone make a post about an Earl Grey creme, and of course now I can't remember exactly which tea it was or who the poster was, but it did inspire me to try this one with a bit of milk in it. Normally I don't really do milk in tea. 97% of all my tea is taken plain. No milk, no sugar, just tea.
It's definitely benefitting from the milk. This is a fairly strong Earl Grey so it's got a lot of the scratchy bergamot flavour and none of the lemony wannabe, and the milk is smoothing it out a lot. I think I definitely like it better this way.
On the other hand the addition of milk seems to have drowned out the Gunpowder in the blend, so it's really like a two-in-one tea. It seems to me to be very different with and without milk.Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:46:37 -0500/teas/Queen's%20Blend/7934-queens-blend?post=23212
Japanese Emperor Blend from A C Perch'sA ton of people posted Genmaicha or Genmaicha-type teas and it reminded me that I still had this tin which has been untouched for a while, so I thought I'd join in. It's been so long that I have to do a post about it with all the details in it.
It's magic colour-shifter tea! Immediately after brewing and pouring, it was a brilliant sun-yellow. After a few seconds of standing in the cup untouched, it's turned that funky radio-active green colour. It's funny because if you remember the blustery-day-on-the-beach kind of green tea bag I had the other day, that one was the other way around. Neon-green first and then yellow.
The name, Genmaicha, is actually misleading in this one, because it's one of the ones that also contain a small amount of matcha powder, so I know from experience that it should have a short steep. I counted 30 elephants.
The aroma is primarily popcorn and just a little bit of nut-like sweetness. It's funny how it can smell so strongly of popcorn and taste completely unlike same. It tastes like rice, but with the sweetness from the green tea. I'm also getting a strong hazelnuttish note from it which completely blindsided me. I had not expected anything like that. No notes of saltwater or seaweed which had been feared given the colour.
Again, it's showing some chameleon-ish tendencies. Colour is now back to yellow, but a darker, warmer and more brownish sort of shade. I wonder what sorts of colours it might turn if I left it long enough.Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:27:49 -0500/teas/Japanese%20Emperor%20Blend/4620-japanese-emperor-blend?post=23341
Japanese Emperor Blend from A C Perch'sSecond steep of the leaves from last night this morning.
You know, I think I really like the first steep better. It was much more buttery this time around, and rather too much so. Not nearly so far as to be greasy or nauseating, but definitely headed in that general direction. The chameleon colour shifting is gone too.
I will say this about it though, it has a certain snacky quality. For me it works remarkably well as a way to avoid those naughty little snacks during the day. Chocolate, biscuits, popcorn, pudding, whatever. Have a cup of this instead. It doens't work every time when I'm craving something, but it's close enough.Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:45:29 -0500/teas/Japanese%20Emperor%20Blend/4620-japanese-emperor-blend?post=23423
Black Dragon Pearls from Adagio TeasHello there Steepsterites.
I bring to you a post that it took most of the day to write. I just took notes when drinking and figured I could write a proper post afterwards so as not to get distracted away from the cup by the forming of proper sentences and hopefully coming up with something witty here and there. I've been hibernating for most of the day, so I'm not really in any condition to be seriously posting about a tea I've never had before, but for some reason I was inspired to try this one today.
It's a *Bethany*-tea and she sent me four balls. I used two for a glass cup and saved the other two. The pellets are large and tightly pressed. It's hard to pick up any sort of aroma from the dry leaves but I feel like I'm catching a small whiff of cocoa. As I dropped them into the cup, one of them bounced off the edge and rolled off on adventures. Those little things can really roll! Found it again several meters away on the other side of the living room.
_First Steep_
Having thwarted the escape attempt, I poured water on and watched the cup while it steeped. The unfurling seemed rather slow and the occasional small bubble of air escaped to the surface. I resisted the temptation to stir the cup to see if I could get something to happen, but I could see a clear difference in colour around the leaves at the bottom and the water at the top of the cup. I didn't want any thin nearly tea, I wanted a representative cup, so I waited until I thought it should be well steeeped and gave it a gentle stir, trying to not whirl everything around too much and let the leaves stay at the bottom of the cup. If I had made it in a pot instead this wouldn't have been necessary since pouring would have mixed it up. It made the balls fall completely apart and the colour went from palest pale of paleness to a reddish amber that actually looked like a black tea. A bit cloudy, though.
Sniffing at the aroma I suddenly learned to recognised 'malty'! I've noticed that particular taste and smell lots of times before, but I've never connected the two until now where it seems wildly obvious. I once upon a time found a tea glossary (here: http://www.chowbaby.com/10_2000/glossary/glossary.asp?synchpage=1&Z=4597646780) but I've learned that such a thing is pretty useless, because the only way to really learn how to recognise these things is by experience. To me, anyway.
Anyway, while waiting for some of the top water to get any tea into it, I managed to oversteep the bottom of the cup. Lovely. By the time I gave it a stir, the whole thing had acquired a slightly bitter bite. It had a malty flavour, but I couldn't really find any of the cocoa notes that I had spotted in the dry aroma and remembered having seeing others mention. I even started wondering if it was something I had just imagined to be able to smell because I thought it was supposed to be there.
Given the slight bitterness, it probably would have helped with a little milk or a little sugar, but since it was brewed directly in the cup, that was not an option. I don't really like the idea of those additives directly on my naked leaves.
Rating-wise I would say it was around 65, having knocked it down a bit due to the oversteep.
_Second Steep_
Second time around it was still a very malty aroma. An aroma that really filled the nose when sniffing it. I like that much better than the ones you sit there and smell and search for something TO smell.
It coloured up much quicker due to not having to wait for the balls to unfurl and it also meant that stirring wasn't necessary. It had a more golden colour this time.
First thing I noticed on the first sip was a very sweet aftertaste. Almost as if it had been sugared. It was less malty that the first steep but I did find some cocoa notes this time, although still not as much as I had expected.
I liked the second steep a lot better, and I would rate this around 78
_Third Steep_
The colour is really pale now, and the aroma initially is just the smell of steam. I tried so hard to find some that I actually ended up dipping the tip my nose in it. Found nothing. Except, of course, a wet nose. After a really long steeping, mostly because I got distracted and momentarily forgot, some aroma showed up. No malt, but definitely cocoa.
Tastewise the third steep was very like the second, only much weaker. The sweetness was a little sweeter and the cocoa was a little cocoa-ier, but otherwise there wasn't really anything noteworthy about it. I wouldn't recommend bothering with a third steep at all.
This one was down at around 55.
Based on these three steeps, I'm landing at an average of about 66, but I'll push it upwards a bit on account of the first steep having been a bit overdone.
Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:49:16 -0500/teas/Black%20Dragon%20Pearls/4471-black-dragon-pearls?post=23463
Pumpkin Pie Flavored Black from 52teasThis one is growing on me. Or maybe not so much growing as me getting more accustomed to the flavour. I take it with a good amount of milk and that helps the heavy scratchy flavour a lot.
I still don't really think I would like pumpkin pie if introduced to it though and I'll leave the rating where it is.Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:24:58 -0500/teas/Pumpkin%20Pie%20Flavored%20Black/5234-pumpkin-pie-flavored-black?post=23532
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.Yes, it's just the good ol' Gunpowder Blend that I recently bought serious amounts of. I edited the name of it because 'Gunpowder Blend' was a direct translation from the danish name 'Krudtblanding'. 'Krudt' = 'Gunpowder' as in the stuff you use to shoot a firearm. Although the blend contains a green tea I don't think the green tea in question _is_ actually Gunpowder as in the green tea, but the name of the blend as I had first translated it led to a number of very understandable misunderstandings. So after consulting a number of internet sites I found this alternative name for gunpowder as in the explosive stuff. Therefore I changed the name.
I know I added some to the TTB so if someone could correct it there too it would be awesome. Please?
Anyway, my flat is Procrastination Central today. I'm working on something that requires brain activity **SHOCK! HORROR!** and I'm still feeling like I could hibernate for the entire day like I did yesterday.
Pick-me-up is needed, so I made me a big cup of this, and on a whim, added some milk. I can't remember if I've tried it with milk before, but I think I have and I seem to remember it having drowned out some of the green tea in it.
I'm not really getting that this time. First part of the sip was all green, and then immediately after that came the smokeyness. Underneath it all the English Breakfast component is going all 'YAY MILK!' which is rather weird for me because I hardly ever drink anything with milk except the pumpkin pie blend from 52teas.com or the pot of Assam my colleague and I share at the cafe we like. I don't think that I would want to take this with milk always though. It seems kind of like a luxury that should be spared for just occasional events, especially considering that I think it's also awesome without the milk.
It does really bring out the sweetness from the green tea. I would never otherwise EVER add milk to any tea that wasn't black, but I think the effect that I'm getting here has something to do with previously mentioned EB component.
It's a bit like the three components start vying for my attention. The green tea is all suave going "I'm sweeeeeeeeeeeet and buttery!" and the EB is going "I'm smooth and milky and sensible!" and the Lapsang Souchong is getting all bouncy and eager and going "I'm here too! Smokey! Me! Me-me-me-me-me!!!"
It's kinda cute, actually.Sun, 10 Jan 2010 09:24:44 -0500/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=23537
Green Tea from UnknownI'm bagging it this morning because as usual I've slept far too late and I dreamed something seriously strange that made me cry buckets (in the dream) so now I've woken up with a post-wail headache without actually having shed a single (real) tear. Lovely.
No matter how deeply mediocre and dull these bags are and the lowness of the supposed quality, it works for me in a situation like this. I think it's because it's so much easier and quicker than fussing with pots and leaves. I don't really need something awesome right now. I just need to wake up.
Wasn't around all day yesterday so I've woken up to 70+ notifications and who knows how many reviews. I can't promise to be able to catch up with that, so if someone wrote something really interesting, could you link me please?Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:23:29 -0500/teas/Green%20Tea/6297-green-tea?post=23984
Assam Deluxe FTGFOP from A C Perch'sI met a friendly kitty on my way home from work today. That saved the otherwise seriously boring day.
It put me in the right frame of mind to do a proper first-time review of a tea and I remembered this one that I got from Lexitus for Christmas and didn't have the energy to review properly the last time I had it.
I did today. But then I got distracted and it oversteeped, resulting in a rather bitter bite.
So, still no rating, still no review. Just steeping fail.Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:52:22 -0500/teas/Assam%20Deluxe%20FTGFOP/8117-assam-deluxe-ftgfop?post=24177
Turkish Tea from UnknownGather round, Steepsterites, because I am going to have probably one of the most interesting teas of a long time now.
I have a colleague, a turkish girl, and she asked me, "Have you ever had Turkish tea?"
I told her I had once. I've never been to Turkey, but I've studied with a turkish girl and once when we were writing a paper to do with some questionnaires she had asked her uncle to take a stack with him to the mosque next time he went. He invited us for tea, so she could explain to him what the questionnaires were about. Her aunt made traditional turkish tea for us.
Then we talked about about how to brew it and my colleague told me that while they do drink a lot of that apple tea, they also drink a lot of plain black tea, taken with sugar. They brew it so strong that it's nearly undrinkable without sugar, and my colleague gave me this that she had and never drank at home and explained to me how to brew it like a turkish person would. Of course I didn't write it down at the time, thinking it was easy enough to remember, but when I came home I still had to google it. I found this site (http://turkish-food.suite101.com/article.cfm/turkish_tea) which has guidelines for brewing. It rang a bell, so I feel pretty confident that this is also how my colleague told me to do.
_QUOTE
1. Prepare a small teapot by adding about one heaping teaspoon of good, black tea (Keemun, Assam, Russian Caravan, English Breakfast all work well) per cup.
2. Boil about 1 cup of water per cup of tea (either in a samovar – or on a stove top).
3. Pour HALF of the steaming water into the teapot and let it steep for at least 15 minutes, keeping both the teapot and the remaining water piping hot. (Without a samovar, you can accomplish this with a good tea cozy for the pot and a very low flame for the water. (I almost hate to admit it, but a microwave works pretty well, too, for keeping the water very hot…. but I “didn’t say that…”).
4. Pour the tea into a small glass cup, about halfway up, and add the water to fill the remainder. Add sugar to taste – BUT NEVER MILK OR HONEY.
Read more at Suite101: Turkish Tea: Brewing and Drinking Tea in Turkey http://turkish-food.suite101.com/article.cfm/turkish_tea#ixzz0chWxExdO
END QUOTE_
So now I'm wondering what sort of leaves she has actually given me. They don't have a very strong aroma. Ever so slightly smoky-ish is about the only characteristic I can pick up. It's a quite large leaf size for a black though. Since my colleague actually travels to visit her husband's family in Turkey at least once a year, I wonder if I could be so lucky that it was actually a tea produced _in_ Turkey. Think about it, it's not that unlikely. It would be cool if it was. I may have to interrogate her some on this matter. She gave me a relatively small amount. Big for a sample, but small for an amount to have lying around when one never takes tea. I'm not sure if that was what she meant but it did sound like, if I liked it, she had more that I could have. Anyway, the leaves look a bit faded in colour, so they're probably getting a bit on in age. With this method of brewing, though, I can't imagine it would spell disaster.
Five minutes still to go of this extremely long steep!
Okay, ready for the next step! Obviously, I don't own the proper tulip-shaped tea glasses, so my cup with the farm animals on it will have to do. I tried a sip of the tea before adding more water to the cup. It had a nice reddish amberish colour and while it did have a strong flavour, it wasn't undrinkably strong. Not at the one small sip, anyway. Quite astringent, but it didn't taste bitter or oversteeped.
After adding water the taste was a little less astringent, but still not undrinkably strong. I was expecting something almost tar-like here and I'm actually wondering if I didn't add enough leaf. I think I was supposed to have made it with another spoonful.
I feel pretty certain that I could easily have taken it without a grain of sugar and enjoyed it, but I'm trying to be authentic here. I did wonder about whether the type of sugar used was important since the instructions said to not use milk or honey. I've decided they probably would have said if it was, so I used cane sugar.
The aroma is very similar to the dry leaf. Not as smokey, though, which I think must be because of the sugar in it.
It's definitely sweet to the taste. If you want a dessert tea, forget about any odd additives and flavouring, because this is a dessert in a cup. I can't really pick up anything underneath the sweetness though. It's a flavour where you're aware that there is tea there, but apart from a light astringency, I can't really tell you anything about it. I know it's odd to my colleague that I can drink tea at all without sugar in it, so it's supposed to be very sweet, but the unobtrusiveness and the lack of strongness of the black tea, only strengthens my belief that I should have used a spoonful more leaves.
Still, I used a third more leaf than usual (should probably have been double) and I steeped it for a quarter of an hour. I'm _shocked_ that it didn't turn out stronger! I'll have to try again though, but for now... I don't know if I'm really a big fan of tea turkish style, but I think I might rather like it as a rare treat rather than a regular occurence.
eta: why is it the quoted bit refuses to be in italics? What am I doing wrong? *squints at it*Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:53:44 -0500/teas/Turkish%20Tea/2322-turkish-tea?post=24305
White Pomegranate from FredstedThanks to the awesome tea picking randomiser that *Jon* provided, I'm finishing off this tea. It's the first tea I've had since this morning where I was trying to brew Gunpowder by a different method but forgot to time the ultra short steeps so it went terribly horribly wrong.
I'd quite forgotten I had this one, and most of it is fannings. I only have enough for one cup, so I have to remember to only fill the pot halfway up, or we're in for a weakling cup of tea. I considered adding a pinch of the Pai Mu Tan or the white Darjeeling to it to stretch it to a whole pot, but decided that they were both too good for such a purpose. I'll just have to randomise myself another cup afterwards then.
Due to the large ratio of fannings in this, I'm giving it a fairly short steep. It's all orange! It's been so long since I've had this that I've completely forgotten what it's like. So yeah, the colour of the brew is surprisingly orange and it definitely smells of pomegranates. Pomegranates and perfume and something that strangely reminds me a little of jasmine. That same dusty floral sort of smell, but it's just a hint of that.
Although I only made half a pot, I was still keen to drain it as well as I could. I did drain the pot, but right now, if you added another drop to the cup it would flow over. It makes sipping a little complicated, and involves me sticking my head down to the cup and generally looking pretty idiotic.
Ack! Even with such a short steep (I normally do about five minutes, give or take) it's still got some bite to it. Clearly I underestimated the fannings. On top of that, the jasmine hint is still there! It doesn't say anything on the bag about jasmine as far as I can tell, only pomegranate.
The pomegranate may or may not be there too, but the tea itself has gone so strong that more or less anything would have been drowned out, and it's just making me thirsty and I have to remind myself that opening a can of the cola I've got in the fridge is a bad idea when I've got almost a whole cup of tea right here.
Looks like it's just the day for steeping fail.Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:52:23 -0500/teas/White%20Pomegranate/5727-white-pomegranate?post=24438
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch'sAfter steeping fail on both teas I've had today, one of which I've documented, I just needed a proper cup of tea. One that can't go wrong. I had a funny feeling that it was a specific one I wanted but it wasn't until I saw the tin that I knew which one it was.
It's funny with this one. When I was first introduced to lapsang souchong, I thought it was a really harsh and rough sort of flavour with smoke all over the place.
Now, the more I drink it, the milder it seems to become. The aroma is still the same. All rough and tough and smoke and manly. But the taste seems to have smoothed out for me.
If I pay attention and seek it out the smokyness is there in spades. But it seems to be a bit shy. If I don't speak to it first, it doesn't speak to me. The rest of the tea seems surprisingly smooth and mellow and with a round sort of feeling to it, as if I had added milk. I haven't actually added anything, and I've only used the cup for the white pomegranate earlier today and rinsed it out in between.
You all remember my black powder blend, the one I recently bought a huge amount of. I've filled my tin at work with that so I have a good amount of that four days a week. It has lapsang souchong in it, the smokyness of which I think is part of the reason for the name of the blend, so could it be that I'm getting so conditioned to lapsang now that I'm having this experience of it?
The first time I had lapsang souchong, after I had first got into the black powder blend, I found it strangely lacking. Watered down. I was expecting the fuller flavour of the blend, not just one of the ingredients in it. I was afraid lapsang souchong as a plain tea had been ruined for me forever. I'm pleased to say that this is definitely not the case, as what I've got here tonight is an extraordinarily pleasant cup of tea.Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:56:31 -0500/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=24483
Iron Goddess of Mercy from Granville Island Tea CoMy order from Teaspring.com is waiting for me at the post office, yay!!!
... I wonder what I bought...? I can't for the life of me remember what's in it. I do sure hope there's Tie Guan Yin, because this is the last of the good stuff that *Jillian* sent me. Unfortunately what with the closing times my local post office has, I can't pick it up until wednesday. (Yes, I could probably find an order confirmation in my inbox and check what I bought, but let me have my little game, please.)
So now I'm still waiting for... uh... Well, I ordered from Nothing But Tea yesterday, so I know I'm waiting for that. And I seem to recall placing an order with 52teas a while ago. I think. I was definitely at the site, so the question remains, did I buy something or did I change my mind? (And again, if I did, I wonder what I bought?)
Just in case I didn't buy any Tie Guan Yin (oh my gosh how will I cope if I didn't???) I am savouring the last of this cup. There's a reason it's named after a goddess, I'm just saying!
Yummilicious!Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:48:29 -0500/teas/Iron%20Goddess%20of%20Mercy/5290-iron-goddess-of-mercy?post=24699
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.I have learned something crucial about this tea today. It can handle a magnificent oversteep relatively well.
My colleague made tea for me, but when she does, she just pours the water on and expects me to remove the filter bag myself after an appropriate steeping time. This is very easy when she makes it without telling me until half an hour later when she comments on the fact that I hadn't taken any yet. Well no, I didn't have time yet. And it took some two hours more before I had.
As is my habit, I always taste it before tossing it away, and while it is definitely strong and definitely astringent, it's not bitter and it's not at all undrinkable. It's far from optimal, but it's tolerable. It gained a coffeeish side-flavour which I'm not all that fond of, but it wasn't completely ruined.
That's good to know in other similar emergencies.Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:22:26 -0500/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=24839
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch's::Sips::
::Stares at cup::
Sugar??? O.o I did not add anything to this cup, where did that come from? In a lapsang???
::sips again several times::
Yes, there is an undeniable sweet note there. I didn't brew it differently or anything. Weird. It wasn't there before, I could have sworn! Or was it, and I didn't notice?
I'M SO CONFUUUUUUSED!!!
(I'm also a bit over-tired at this point just in case you hadn't guessed.)
ETA: Also, I did not ask for that bit to be in italics, what's going on? O.o
ETA again: Evidently you can also make italics by use of double ?s...Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:13:21 -0500/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=24891
Bi Luo Chun from TeaSpringTeaspring order is now home and unpacked. And yes, it did contain the beloved tie guan yin. *phew!* It also contained a load of other goodies (including a tibetan tea brick which I'm looking forward to trying as soon as I can persuade myself to break it to bits) and it was really difficult to choose which one to try first. Ippy-Dippy came to my rescue and here we are!
A lot of my Teaspring order appears to have been nostalgia. I remember this one as being one of the first ever green teas I had ever, and I remember being rather fond of it.
I love the look of the leaves. All thin and twisty and soft looking. Really they look like they ought to be downy but they're not really. Cute leaves ftw!
It brews up, even slightly oversteeped, to a pale yellow colour. I tried with a short steep first, but after one sip, I poured it back in the pot and let it steep a little more because that was like just drinking hot water. The aroma was a strawlike grassy thing with hints of salted butter.
Due to the slight oversteep (I got distracted) it was a little astringent, but not bitter. It had the same sweetish strawlike notes as in the aroma. There was also a strong nuttyness that reminded me a little of the beloved pai mu tan.
The thing I remembered about this one, was a lingering, slightly minty aftertaste, and I'm pleased to say that I did not imagine that. It's there too.
Towards the bottom of the pot it turned a little more buttery and vegetable-like and the minty aftertaste went away while drinking that. Strangely, now, several minutes after having finished the last cup, minty aftertaste is back with a vengeance. Cool.
This is definitely living up to the fond memories I have of it.
def living up to the fond memoryWed, 20 Jan 2010 07:10:27 -0500/teas/Bi%20Luo%20Chun/8710-bi-luo-chun?post=24955
Assam Deluxe FTGFOP from A C Perch'sI'm falling asleep at my keyboard here, and I need a pick-me-up. So, a strong black tea, yes please. So I picked this one.
It wasn't until afterwards that I realised that this was the tea that I had yet to manage to brew successfully. This time I was careful not to oversteep though.
This tea has two very distinctive primary notes, and they are entirely, it seems, independent of one another. There's a very sweet, honeylike smoothness and then there's a somewhat astringent malty kick. It kind of feels a little disjointed. As it develops, the malty note starts to take over, but with the promise that the sweet will be back with the addition of a little milk to smooth the astringency.
(Given how sleepy I am as I'm writing this, there's NO WAY I'm adding milk to this. That would knock me out for sure.)Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:05:48 -0500/teas/Assam%20Deluxe%20FTGFOP/8117-assam-deluxe-ftgfop?post=24993
Bai Hao oolong from TeaSpringHere's another one from my recent Teaspring splurge. Another tea that I have fond memories of. If I recall correctly it was on my first ever Teaspring order. I remember liking it a lot and then when I wanted to reorder, it was sold out. For a long time it kept saying 'out of stock' and eventually I gave up and forgot about it. But now we're back in business.
Apparently, according to Teaspring, Queen Elizabeth really likes this oolong and is the source of the 'oriental beauty' name it also goes under. For a royalist like me, that's a big selling point. :) Note how it doesn't even have to be the royal family of my own country.
I can't give a great description of the leaves at this time, other than they're large, twisty and ranging in colour from black to almost whiteish, the reason being that I open the bag a little awkwardly and now it's slightly broken. I need to handle it as little as possible, so that it doesn't break further until I have a free tin. (Note to self: Buy more tins. I'm at least five tins short.)
The tea brews up very dark, looking rather like a black tea, and it has a very strong aroma. You don't have to search for the scent and it seems sweet and floral. For some reason my mind insists on marzipan. Which is odd because it doesn't really smell like marzipan at all. The little grey cells (or not so little, actually. Brain cells and nerve cells are actually quite large because they stretch so far) are very stubborn and won't give it a rest at all. What is that other smell I can smell, though? I know I'm supposed to be able to connect it with something, but the stretched grey cells won't recall what it is. I think they're just prissy that I'm not giving in on the marzipan issue. It's floral, but I kind of think I ought to be able to get a bit closer than that. Maybe I'll think of it later.
It is indeed very floral in flavour too! If I didn't know any better, I would think this was scented. It's very vegetal and flowery and exTREMEly girly. The flowers that aren't really there are so dominant in this, and I find myself wondering what it was about it I was so taken with way back when.
Unlike the Bi Lou Chun, this one is just not living up to the memories I have. I'm not very impressed. How disappointing.Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:47:11 -0500/teas/Bai%20Hao%20oolong/8709-bai-hao-oolong?post=25142
Coconut Cream Pie from 52teasAh, so I _did_ make an order with 52teas. The one I couldn't remember if I made or if I had changed my mind. Either that or someone decided to send me a present which would be cool but also kind of improbable.
I'm starting with this one, mostly because the picture on the pouch looks like something that would be right up my alley. The leaves smell lovely sweet of coconut. Not so much of tea though. Dessert-like.
After brewing I'm finding an odd note of raisins... it sounds weird but somehow it fits. Again the coconut is prevalent. There is also a creamy smell which suggests that I ought to try this with milk also.
For now, I'm sticking to plain. Coconut, defintiely. Sweet, but not cloying at all. I can pick up the tea underneath too. It's a strong base. Somewhat malty. One that would carry a little sweetener well, which is probably why it's doing so well with the coconut.
I shall definitely have to try this with a little milk, but on its own as I've got it now, it's quite nice too.Sat, 23 Jan 2010 04:51:24 -0500/teas/Coconut%20Cream%20Pie/555-coconut-cream-pie?post=25354
Cherry Vanilla Cola Black Tea from 52teasThe success of the coconut cream pie inspired me to try one of the other ones I bought from the forgotten 52teas order. I'm not surprised I ordered this one and it was sort of screaming to me. Here's the thing.
I. Love. Cherry. Cola.
Favourite soda (after orange) FTW.
Unfortunately it's not something we can usually get here. I don't know if you can over there on the other side of the water. I know you have Dr Pepper which to me is very similar, but also not available in Denmark unless you're really lucky. We had it for a couple of years recently, but it was taken off the market again. Apparently it didn't sell well enough. (I fear Mountain Dew has gone the same tragic way, because I can't find that anymore either). Recently we've had a limited edition cherry cola from coca-cola which was yummy, but alas, that one seems to also have run its course. In my deprivation of proper cherry cola or similar beverage, I've found that I can make a relatively good substitute with ordinary cola and cherry cordial. It's not the same, but it works okay.
What all this means is that I have VERY high expectations of this one. So high, that I'm likely to be disappointed. Anything below a clean 100 on this is not good enough. The question just is exactly how disappointed am I going to get?
The leaves actually do smell a bit like cola and something that I'm willing to call cherry-like. There is however also a note which to my own surprise I can only describe as vaguely menthol-like. This is worrysome.
After steeping, the tea has pretty much the same smell, only hot. The mentholness is sticking out a bit more here, which is a little odd to me because menthol (along with mints) is usually a cool sort of flavour.
Hmm... Flat cola with dusty vanilla. I can't find any cherry outside of the smell. Something sour-ish, kind of citrus-soapy-like. So, yes, I did get disappointed. It's just a question of how much.
This does require an amount of experimentation, but for a first experience, I cannot in good consciousness give it more than 65-ish.Sat, 23 Jan 2010 07:47:22 -0500/teas/Cherry%20Vanilla%20Cola%20Black%20Tea/7168-cherry-vanilla-cola-black-tea?post=25369
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringBah, still feeling rather under the weather. I really wanted a january in which I wasn't ill, but people around me seem to insist that there is probably more to it than just average female issues. And the more they say so, the more miserable I feel. At this point I'm strongly suspecting that they might be right too. Lexitus has reminded me to have lots of fluids, so I might as well continue posting about tea, yes?
Switched back to the Teaspring order for this one. I was in need of just a plain black cup. No additives.
The leaves look a lot like my Assam Deluxe FTGFOP from AC Perchs, except with fewer golden tips. They have a very fruity raisin-like aroma as well as a strong note of cocoa.
Due to the nature of the cup chosen, I can't really comment on the colour, but in this cup it looks pretty default black. The aroma is very sweet and raisin-y. The cocoa is still there too, but now it's less dominant than before. There is also something there that reminds me a little of vanilla. A malty sort of vanilla, which sounds weird, but it's the best way I can describe it. I would not believe, based on aroma alone, that this was not a flavoured tea. But it isn't. It's plain.
The taste is surprisingly sweet for a plain black, and it's definitely fruity. Teaspring speaks of plum-like notes, but I think personally I'll stick to calling it a raisin-y note. I will agree with them, though, on the floral note. It's only there if I really concentrate and taste it thoroughly, but once I've found it, it's there. Dry-ish and floral. Like just a smidge. Like the tea bush grew surrounded by flowers.
I'm reminded of the Fujian Baroque that Bethany shared a sample of with me, which isn't surprising because this tea comes from the Fujian province too. I like this one better though. It's a little less loud on the fruity notes, and I can also find a cocoa note on the swallow. A very dark one that lingers as if there's a layer stuck to the inside of my mouth. I couldn't find that in the Fujian Baroque.Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:53:30 -0500/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=25377
Tie Guan Yin from TeaSpringFavourite oolong... sounds about what I need. (actually what I probably really need is another nap, but I'm tired of sleeping and there's something on tv in 45 minutes that I want to see)
Teaspring's is the tie guan yin I'm most familiar with and also, so far, the one I have preferred the most. The interesting legend behind the origins of the tea. The prettiness of the bright green leaves, so clear in colour as if they had been dyed. The aroma so sweet and rich, like a lovely -brocoli- -broccolli- -broccol- green vegetable boiled just to perfection and with just the right amount of butter. The colour such deep yellow, looking like it's actually a green tea.
The flavour! So round and vegetally sweet and lingering perfection.
It's _just_ right.Sat, 23 Jan 2010 13:17:29 -0500/teas/Tie%20Guan%20Yin/8711-tie-guan-yin?post=25415
Golden Raisin Oolong *Limited* from 52teasRaisins are a very very recent vice for me. Since december 30th 2009 actually. I was baking something that included raisins. I haven't had problems with raisins in baked goods for years now because I've just learned to taste around them. But after having put my baking project in the oven, I caught myself, to my extreme surprise, standing there and eating the rest of the raisins right out of the box! This is huge, because just an hour before, if you had asked me, I would have said that I don't much care for raisins, and I assume that this was what prompted me to get this particular blend.
Upon opening the pouch I'm immediately greeted by a smell that rather reminds me of that vanilla date concoction that I didn't like. It's not nearly as strong here, but it's defintiely there and it's the same type of smell. This has me a little worried. Also, the leaves look small and very dark, almost as if it's actually a large leaf black tea and there are lots of raisins in it.
The tea brews up rather dark, almost like an average black tea. I'm used to greener oolongs, so that's probably why I'm getting a little type confused here. I wouldn't say it's particularly oolong-y or raisin-y in flavour. There doesn't seem to be anything very characteristic of either of the two. Deepest down I would say that it still tastes a bit like a mild black The raisins are only coming through as a slight fruity sweetness while it's hottest. They are more pronounced as the cup cools a bit.
I like it this way. It's not _very_ raisin-y, but it's enough. Had the raisins been more dominant I expect I probably wouldn't have liked it much at all. But this way it's very nice.Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:40:43 -0500/teas/Golden%20Raisin%20Oolong%20*Limited*/7044-golden-raisin-oolong-star-limited-star?post=25561
Hazelnut Chocolate Mint from CustomOne teaspoon Hazelnut black tea (Adagio), one teaspoon Chocolate black tea (also Adagio), and a pinch of peppermint (Luka Te m. m.)
BLARGH!
Experiment fail. Wildly mediocre. That is all.Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:55:21 -0500/teas/Hazelnut%20Chocolate%20Mint/8877-hazelnut-chocolate-mint?post=25573
Long Jing from TeaSpringOh dear.
Looks like I'm going to pay a visit to the post office on wednesday. It's a really small post office, my local one. Hardly more than a kiosk really. So I often get helped by the same person. This is the third tea order to have arrived in... let's see... erm... a week.
Oh dear. *whistles innocently*
I'm in a green mood today. What luck that I've presently got a cupboard just _teeming_ with new and interesting stuff!
I'm pretty sure I've had dragonwell before, but I can't remember what I thought of it. The name just seems too familiar for me to _not_ have had it. I just can't remember, in that case, what I thought of it. So here we go!
OMG these leaves are flatter than a flat thing! They look like they've been ironed. Or a steamroller went over them. I'm all fascinated by how they look in the tin. All springy yellowy green and flat and stackable. (Whaddaya mean tea leaves aren't toys?) They smell kinda sweet but a bit salty when dry.
I dosed the leaves like I otherwise would and let the water cool off a little longer before pouring it on. I'm not worried about the water temperature. It's more the leaf dosage. For some reason I have a sneaky suspicion that I should have used more leaves. Not sure why. Maybe it's the flatness of them (OMG flat leaves!) that makes me think so. They look like they take up less space. I'm tempted to throw in another pinch of leaves, but I think it would be better to leave that sort of experimentation for the next time. I'll just use less water for subsequent steeps.
Okay, this is very very pale! Now I'm even more suspicious about my leaf to water ratio. The aroma is erm... interesting though. Salty and seaweed-y and kinda.. I don't want to say what this note reminds me of. You'll laugh at me. No, I don't want to say. Okay, okay, Royal Canin Maine Coon cat food, okay?! Yes, I know it's weird, but smelling it, I just got the strongest associations to when Boannan was alive and I'd mix up a bucketful of cat food. (2 parts RC Sensitive, 1 part RC Maine Coon, if anybody's interested in that side of things)
Hm. Yes. Hm. I definitely should have used more leaf. Just a smidge. Apart from what seems like a slight weakness, it has a very special taste. Kind of like it smells. Salty and seaweed-y, but not as cat food-y, thank you *very* much. It's smooth, though, with not a hint of astringency in sight, it's just this rather special flavour. Right now it's not my perfect green, but if I was subjected to this often and over a longer period of time, I think I might end up being rather partial to it. Rating is therefore likely to be adjusted a few times in the future.
I saw lately someone (Jillian?) wrote that supposedly the third steep of this was the superior one, so it'll be interesting to see how this develops.Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:29:41 -0500/teas/Long%20Jing/6863-long-jing?post=25781
Black Dragon Pearls from Adagio TeasI had two left of these, and I've brewed one so now I'm out. These things _roll_! The other one has has escaped and rolled off to some unknown dimension. It's okay (to a point, obviously) because in this cup, one turned out to be enough. It even steeped better and quicker than I remember from the first time I tried these (*Bethany* sent me four) where I had used two to a cup and it apparently was too difficult for them to unfurl properly.
This one steeped quickly and I'm getting a berry-like note in the aroma (I'm thinking black currant) and a sweeter malty note in the flavour.
You'll excuse me if I'm not putting a whole lot of effort into this right now, but my back hurts like a painful thing today and I can't sit very well.Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:17:02 -0500/teas/Black%20Dragon%20Pearls/4471-black-dragon-pearls?post=26010
Lemon Oolong (FO01) from Nothing But TeaNothing But Tea order has arrived and I'm starting with this one. I bought the oolong sample set and the pu-ehr sample set so that's about 15 or so 10g samples.
I've never had a lemon oolong before, but it strikes me as a flavour that would go well with oolong. The leaves have that deep green colour that I love in an oolong and there are some large bits in it that I think must be lemon bits. It smells lemony too, but not synthetic.
In the cup it's as yellow as a lemon, which seems fitting. I'm pleased to find that while there is a lemon note in the aroma, it's still very much smelling like an oolong. The lemon just feels so natural there.
I like this. It tastes very much like it smells. It's a good solid oolong, Tie Guan Yin-ish even, which as you know is sure to make it a number one hit with me, and the lemon is just there. Discreet, but strong. It just FITS, you know? Like you go 'mmmmm, oolong' and then 'wait, lemon!'
It's like it just belongs here in the oolong. The finishing touch flavour.
Now, anybody willing swap backs with me?Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:19:13 -0500/teas/Lemon%20Oolong%20(FO01)/8983-lemon-oolong-fo01?post=26020
Pu Ehr Orange (EP08) from Nothing But TeaTeaplz had the blood orange pu-ehr from Samovar earlier and it inspired me. Since then there were a couple other citrus-y posts, so maybe we've got the Citrus Craze coming in? It's been a while since we've had one of those flavour-trend days, hasn't it? I just got a (regular) orange pu-ehr sample after all, and feeling optimistic due to the very successful pot of the lemon oolong, I thought why not continue on the citrus line?
The leaves look like a black tea. They're small and well, black, and they smell largely of orange rind. Not much else, to be honest. On the other hand, it's not a synthetic orange smell, so I'm not really sure whether or not to be worried here.
After steeping, though, I'm very pleased to say that my nose detected an absolutely delicious pu-ehr smell. Vaguely cow stable-ish. Not really how a cow stable actually smells, but more the memory of the way it smelled when you were very very little and visited your great-grandparents on their farm and your great-grandfather took you with him out to tend to the animals. I can't actually remember him doing that, but I'm sure he must have, you know? And I associate the smell with that and with them. I sincerely doubt my great-grandparents would have liked this, and I don't even know if they drank tea at all, but the smell reminds me of their house. I can remember what the kitchen looked like and the little pantry where my great-grandmother fed me jam with a spoon straight out of the glass ("because that was such a nice little mouth, it couldn't hurt") and I remember the low ceilling of the living room with my great-grandfather at the end of the table with his pipe and how you had to pass through the cold cold hallway at the back to get to the bathroom, how the garden looked like and the 'nice' livingroom which was ONLY used on special occasions. Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent into my earliest childhood memories there. My very first encounter wtih pu-ehr I didn't like the smell very much , but now a couple of years later pu-ehr, to me, smells like these memories.
Let's get back to the tea. The taste is very pu-ehr. Not so much orange. Mind you, it's been so long since I've last had a proper plain pu-ehr (or any sort of plain pu-ehr, actually) that in the mmmmm pu-ehr!-ness of it, I'm completely missing out on the orange-ness. If I concentrate though, I can find it sort of at the end of the sip, and it's going very well with a piece of chocolate. The pu-ehr itself is... I can't really describe it. I can't really tell you about tasting notes here at all because it's just.... pu-ehr! It tastes like pu-ehr! Yummy, but just pu-ehr.
I'm enjoying this enormously, but unlike the lemon oolong, I'll have to put some thought into whether or not it's something I want to stock up on.Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:15:20 -0500/teas/Pu%20Ehr%20Orange%20(EP08)/8973-pu-ehr-orange-ep08?post=26085
Pu Erh Exotic (EP07) from Nothing But TeaFeeling lazy today, so I'll make it brief and go do something else.
Not entirely sure what it is that makes this one 'Exotic' and frankly I can't be bothered to look it up right now. The leaves have some bits of something blue in them that is probably some sort of flower, and they smell very fruity and yummy. I couldn't smell any of the actual tea though.
After brewing I can smell that it's pu-ehr, but I'm not getting the same memory-sparking inspirational cow-stable smell that I did from the orange one yesterday (which btw was quite nice on third steep in my travel mug this morning). This is rather more fruity and there's a note of something almost cloyingly sweet. It smells nice but at the same time a wee bit over the top. Try as I might, I can't make my brain recognise any of the notes in this. I want to stay berries but not quite, and I want to say citrus but not quite and I want to say vanilla but not quite.
There's definitely orange in the flavour though. I'm a little disappointed by how similar it is to the orange pu-ehr I had yesterday. It's like it's that one at the base and then they just kept building on it. At this point I have to look it up and see what is actually in it. NBT says 'natural flavours, orange flowers, cornflowers and raspberry pieces.' So I called the orange, definitely, and I called something berry-like. I'm still not sure that cornflowers have an actual flavour as such or what they're supposed to taste like if they do, but they seem to be a fairly common addition in tea blends. Natural flavours of what? That could be anything but I'm guessing the oranges and raspberries.
I would say, yes, it definitely tastes exotic. But I just don't think the flavours really fit in here. I'm not really sure that I think pu-ehr and berries work all that well together.Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:25:33 -0500/teas/Pu%20Erh%20Exotic%20(EP07)/8975-pu-erh-exotic-ep07?post=26221
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.What I wanted was to try another one of the samples from Nothing But Tea.
What I needed was this. Well-known and sure to please. I've reaced a point with this one where I don't _have_ to sit and taste it and think a lot about what I'm having. I know exactly what I'm going to get. Sweet, clean nuttyness.
It's the get-me-started cup this morning. I'll dive back into the NBT samples later.Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:53:13 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=26444
Black Dragon (OT02) from Nothing But TeaInteresting name! I like it, I get mental images of dragons and all. (Maybe that's also because I'm currently listening to the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini on audiobook. Good story btw, very recommendable).
The leaves are dark, but they smell sort of like they ought to be greener. Fresh, kinda. I'm picking up sweet raisin note from them, which makes me rather look forward to tasting it. There is a lot of the raisins in the aroma after steeping too, along with something else that reminds me a little of vanilla.
Tasting it was a bit of a surprise. It tastes much greener and grassier than I had expected and I'm not finding any of the fruity sweetness anywhere. Instead there's a slight astringency and an almost wooden primary flavour. Like a green that has been oversteeped. It's not bitter, but it's getting there. As the cup cools it gets a little better. The not-quite-bitterness has gone away, although it's still tasting somewhat of pencil. You know, the flavour of the end of a chewed pencil.
I think I might have overdone it a bit with the steeping time of this one, but I'm trying to imagine what it might have been like otherwise. I'm trying to find the hints of what it could have been and I'm coming up short. It doesn't mean they're not there, but just that as it is, it's not really gripping me.
According to NBT this is supposedly very suitable for multiple steeps, so we're going to try that and see what happens. For now I'm not putting a rating on it, but if I reach a conclusion after a couple of resteeps, I'll either make another post or just edit one in. Depending on the level of laziness.
*ETA* After a couple more steeps, I've reached a decision. It's not that it's not a good tea, because there isn't really anything wrong with it. It's just not really grabbing my interest much. I had a second and third steep of it (small pot, about two cups in each steep) and halfway through the third I just gave up and forgot about it. I got bored. Plain and simple.
Shame though, considering the name...Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:29:08 -0500/teas/Black%20Dragon%20(OT02)/8982-black-dragon-ot02?post=26447
Pu Erh Toucha (EC11) from Nothing But TeaNever had a pu-erh toucha before. At first I wasn't sure if I should steep it as it was or if I should break it to bits first, but I decided to go for the former after having looked it up at the seller's website. I figured that it was little difference from various pearl teas and that if I was supposed to break it to bits, they would have said so.
Turns out I think I did it the right way this way. I could see it in the pot in the beginning of the steep and it disintegrated pretty quickly. I can't say anything about how it smelled because although I tried, I had just handled salmon so I couldn't really smell anything other than fish. And I was pretty certain that it wasn't supposed to smell like smoked fish.
A normal length steep for me gave me a very dark brew. It's as black as coffee and it's only when I hold it up to the light that I can spot any sort of transparency. I think maybe I've steeped it to death here, and I'm belatedly reminded of *Carolyn's* method of many very ultra short steeps. Maybe that's the way I should go with the other toucha.
It doesn't, however, taste in anyway ruined. It's actually very nice. A bit mild for a pu-erh possibly, but it's not bitter at all. It just has that hint of astringency that tells me that I've used too much leaf for this length of steeping. There should be loads of steeps left in this one though. Shorter ones, mind.
There's nothing to report on the taste otherwise though. It just tastes like pu-erh. Fairly standard. Default pu-erh. I got a sample of a plain loose pu-erh too from this company, and if they turn out to be similar (which I suspect they will) then this will likely be the one of the two I'll prefer, simply because this is easier to deal with. It's always good, I think, to have a solid plain pu-erh around in the cupboard and that's something I've been missing for a long time.
Bit like a teabag actually, just without the actual bag.Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:14:25 -0500/teas/Pu%20Erh%20Toucha%20(EC11)/8977-pu-erh-toucha-ec11?post=26468
Bi Luo Chun from TeaSpring*sips*
Hmmm...
*sips*
Hmmmmmmmmm...
*sips*
Who was it wot mentioned having found peach notes in a plain bi luo chun?
*sips*
I can't find it.
And I can't figure out if I'm disappointed or relieved. I don't really much like peach in tea, see. I just thought it would be cool if I would be able to find it too.
*sips*
No, nothing. Still otherwise yummilicious, though.Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:48:12 -0500/teas/Bi%20Luo%20Chun/8710-bi-luo-chun?post=26506
Melon from PickwickI'm bagging it this morning. Just to be provocative.
That is all.Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:09:16 -0500/teas/Melon/6035-melon?post=26586
Pu Erh (EC05) from Nothing But TeaAs I had suspected this is indeed quite similar to the pu-erh toucha I had the other day. Given a choice between the two, I'd get the toucha just for the convenience. It seemed like a good size in comparison to the size of my pot so the inability to adjust the 'dosage' isn't something that would worry me.
Like the toucha, this one seems to be pretty much default pu-erh. The only difference here is that I haven't steeped this one to the brink of death. The smaller leaf size in the toucha surprised me a bit.
But again, it's a good tea. It's just a pretty straight forward one. It tastes like pu-erh and it's a good one to have for a plain every-day pu-erh that doesn't cost a small fortune. That's really all there is to say about it.Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:48:57 -0500/teas/Pu%20Erh%20(EC05)/8974-pu-erh-ec05?post=26589
Raspberry from Adagio TeasGRRRR! ARGH!
I'm mildly irritated at just about the whole entire world today.
I picked this one pretty much at random from the cupboard, going for something that I could finish off. I have a lot of samples left that have only one go left in them or so and I need to get around to getting rid of it. (And no, I'm not particularly interested in giving them away just because there isn't much left. I believe in swap via wishlist or because I think someone might like a particular one (or it's one that I like enough that I want others to try it too)). Maybe I should make a finish-this-first pile ala *Bethany*.
I'm rather busy spewing my irritated rant elsewhere on the internet at the moment and the tea was semi-forgotten in the process. It's just lukewarm now and in this condition it's fairly boring. Shame actually, because I can see from my previous rating that I've otherwise enjoyed it.
Maybe what I really needed wasn't any particular flavour but just something warm to drink. I'm not in a condition to pay too much attention to flavour profile anyway. I just needed a cup of _tea_. The kind was pretty much irrelevant at this point.
If any of that even made sense.Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:59:58 -0500/teas/Raspberry/101-raspberry?post=26902
Golden Raisin Oolong *Limited* from 52teasRight. So the raspberry I-just-need-something phase is over with.
This one is very deliberately chosen. I was sitting here and thinking about it. Like, it wouldn't leave my head at all. I was telling myself that I had just decided to try and finish off some of my tiny amounts, but it wasn't working.
I've only had this once before and the rating says I liked it, but apart from that I can't actually remember what I thought of it. (I do remember that eating one of the raisins post steeping wasn't particularly successful. No flavour left. And eating one pre steeping was even less so, covered in dry-leaf-taste as it was.)
There's a jasmine-y note to the aroma. Having checked my previous note, I can't believe I didn't catch that before. Anyway, this just hitting the spot right now.
I like this best after it has steeped and then cooled off just the tiniest tad, because that's where the sweetness of the raisins come out and they rather suit the oolong.Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:33:08 -0500/teas/Golden%20Raisin%20Oolong%20*Limited*/7044-golden-raisin-oolong-star-limited-star?post=26952
Yunnan Jig from Adagio TeasAnother one finished off. This is the last of a sample that *Jillian* sent me. It's been a while and I can't actually really remember what I thought of it at the time. I've only got a single cup here, because I only had leaves enough left for half a pot.
I steeped it a bit too much I think because it's got a fairly astringent bite. There is a sweet note though, a sort of tongue coating one. Not quite caramel, but similar. Mostly I got the smokey peppery note which was probably brought out more by the fact that it was steeped a bit too long.
Anyway, this was a good enough tea to have in a sample. It was good to try and overall I liked it. I'm definitely interested in exploring the yunnan blacks further, but it probably wouldn't be this particular one.Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:00:36 -0500/teas/Yunnan%20Jig/64-yunnan-jig?post=27118
Guanabana from Adagio TeasAnother one finished off! I decided that what I really needed was something black and fruity sweet, not something plain black.
So I took the rest of these leaves, again, enough for just half a pot, and botched the brewing. I put them in the pot, but by the time the water was done boiling I'd forgotten that I only had enough leaves for half a pot so I filled it up. I don't like pouring a botched brewing away without tasting it first, so we'll see if I just wasted the last of my leaves of this one.
Yes, it's definitely a bit on the weakling side. It's still tasting like a black tea though and there's they sweet fruity note that I wanted clear enough. It just doesn't really have much _body._ But that's my own fault.
I like it. It was fun to try and I'm curious about this guanabana fruit. Unlikely to ever get to taste one, but still. I kinda suspect that I would like it. But it's not a tea that I feel any need to stock up on.Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:11:14 -0500/teas/Guanabana/86-guanabana?post=27120
Rose Oolong (FO02) from Nothing But TeaI'm not really feeling the inspiration to write a long and insightful post today, but I have other stuff that I'd like to be writing on, and I need to sort of get the floodgates opened up. Preferably before the time where I actually ought to have already gone to bed, you know? So I'm choosing to have one of my NBT samples tonight to force myself to write a proper post and hopefully get in the swing of things so I can work on my other project.
The leaves green and smells rather... At first I thought flowery, but the more I smell them the more I'm thinking citrus-y. My immediate thought here was, 'did they give me another sample of the lemon oolong by mistake?'. I can't see that there are any rose bits in there either. I was rather expecting petals, you know? The lemon oolong was super-yummy, so taste-wise I know I'm not in for a disappointment if there was indeed a mix up. At least that's something.
I can't say anything about the colour because of the nature of the cup, but I still think it smells rather citrus-y. However, there is also a flowery note that makes me think 'roses', so I don't think they actually screwed up. I've also looked at the site and the pictures of the lemon and rose oolongs are very similar. I've left the cup to stand and develop a bit more and the more it does the more rosy the aroma becomes. Okay, so they didn't mess it up. But it was weird that they seemed so similar initially. Considering how much I liked the lemon oolong, I'm taking it as a good sign though.
It tastes slightly overdone, but I'm pretty sure that must be my fault. I think the water was a bit too hot and I think I oversteeped it some too. It's quite rosy in flavour though. Quite rosy. Very... rosy, in fact. Quite a very lot rosy to be honest.
I think maybe the extreme rosyness wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't mistreated the leaves. Right now it seems hugely dominant. Lovely, but too much.
On the second steep, I've let the water cool off for a few minutes before pouring it on the leaves and I've made sure to pay attention to when I did that instead of just winging it like I usually do. I'm hoping it'll be more oolong-y and a little less rosy this time around. If it is, it's lovely. If it's not, it's just good.
It's actually quite nice on the second go around. A bit understated, but I'm getting a pretty good idea of what the first steep would have been like if I hadn't maimed it. The rosy notes are not as overwhelming here and the oolong is not as sour. Not quite lovely but definitely better than good.
It's definitely a girly girl tea, this. I'm not sure I can get Lexitus to drink this. (I'm not sure I'd do that to him anyway) I'm not sure it's one that I'm going to buy more of, but I wouldn't be surprised if I did either.Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:28:59 -0500/teas/Rose%20Oolong%20(FO02)/8984-rose-oolong-fo02?post=27240
Coconut Cream Pie from 52teasI've been craving this one since last night when I went home from Lexitus', but given the time I thought it best not to have any. I'm trying to learn to get back in the habit of getting to bed at a decent hour, and I have finally admitted that it may have something to do with the tea I'm having in the evening. I _hate_ to admit it because this is not something that has ever bothered me before. But people change and people get older you know? Maybe it's just one of those things. Possibly the development of Steepster into a more social site to hang out on compared to the very first incarnation of it is also making me drink more tea. Bottomline is, I knew I couldn't have any when I got home at 10.30pm. (train delays for the GRRR)
But I can certainly have it now. Haven't done any of my chores yet, of course, but I can certainly have my tea.
Mmmmmmm.... coconut.Sat, 06 Feb 2010 07:15:56 -0500/teas/Coconut%20Cream%20Pie/555-coconut-cream-pie?post=27468
Bi Luo Chun from TeaSpringI made a cup of this earlier and then forgot about it, so it's all lukewarm and dull now.
As usual though, I had to test-taste it before tossing it and for a brief brief moment I thought I had actually managed to spot the peaches that *JacquelineM* found earlier in a different brand bi luo chun. I was all, "YAY!"
And then I realised that when I rinsed the pot out after the passion fruit from Adagio (unlogged) earlier I hadn't done it properly and missed the pinch of leaves lodged in the spout. I'm pretty sure that's where the sudden fruityness came from.
As lovely as this is when it's warm, it's rather dull when it's not. So I think I'll go make something else. I've quite lost the desire for this particular one right now.Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:21:46 -0500/teas/Bi%20Luo%20Chun/8710-bi-luo-chun?post=27506
Black Satin from 52teasI experienced a sudden craving. And to my delight (because I had given the last I had away in a swap) I had actually ordered another round of this in my forgotten 52teas order at the beginning of the year.
Lovely. Just a shame I haven't got any milk. I've found that this is rather nice with a bit of milk.
Also, it is steeped to perfection with this awesome tea timer site that *James Deville* found.
http://steep.itSat, 06 Feb 2010 14:56:15 -0500/teas/Black%20Satin/6477-black-satin?post=27509
Black Dragon Pearls from Adagio TeasYay, I found the one I'd lost! I had two, brewed one and the other escaped and rolled off into obscurity. I even thought I saw which way it went but I couldn't find it anywhere.
I figured it would show up eventually and dealt with the loss. Now I've found it hiding behind some tins in the cupboard. I don't understand this because I definitely saw it rolling away. I'm sure I saw both of them rolling away. Now I'm in a funny sort of position where the one I found was actually the one I lost and the one I lost was the one I found.
It came at a perfect time though when I just needed a quick cup, but I have to admit that I'm not really capable of paying too much attention to it beyond 'caffeine = gooooood' at this moment. Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:10:53 -0500/teas/Black%20Dragon%20Pearls/4471-black-dragon-pearls?post=27568
Chai tea from Luka Te m.m.I'm freezing! Also, I've followed *Bethany's* example and gathered together all the teas that I only have a little left of and therefore needs to be finished off. I figured this was the closest one for getting warm what with all the spices in it.
Usually when I've had this I've done it the traditional way with *Lena's* and *Takgoti's* recipe, but I don't have any milk so I went out on a limb and just brewed it like I would have any other 'normal' tea.
It's been a good while since I've had any of this, but I definitely remember that I could have lived without the black pepper. For some reason, when taken plain like this it's actually a lot smoother. Probably because I'm using less leaf this way, but it works. Pepper is diminished, although I could still cope without the note of it that's left.
It's still not something that I'm likely to be stocking up on, though.Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:05:46 -0500/teas/Chai%20tea/6589-chai-tea?post=27913
Indian Night Decaf Black Vanilla from Numi Organic TeaThis was without a doubt the _worst_ cup of tea I've had in a long long time. It even surpassed Adagio's white cucumber concoction in terms of vileness. And it probably wasn't even the tea's fault.
See, this is a backlog from this afternoon on the way home from work. I've got a 45-50 minutes train commute and sometimes I buy some sort of coffee drink to go for the trip. Today though, I was super-sleepy (through _every_ fault of my own) so I thought it would be good with some caffeine on the trip. Coffee does indeed have plenty of caffeine, but cappucinos and cafe lattes also have lots of milk, and milk is not all that good at keeping people awake. So something without milk and with caffeine in it. I thought, "hey, this place has Numi teas! Why not give that a shot?" Of course they only had a smaller selection and not the chocolate pu-erh one, so I picked this one because it sounded nice with a vanilla tea.
Erm yeah. Staying awake. Decaf. NEVERMIND!
So that was the first mistake.
I get a to-go cup of water of a temperature that means business, but with my mitten on it was possible to hold the cup. I steeped and then removed the lid from the cup, so I could drink it and get the benefit of the aroma as well. And this is where is started to go wrong, Steepsterites.
The aroma was extremely fruity and sweetly berry-like. Vanilla was there as a hint and I think the thing that added the sweetness.
The tea itself was pretty weak in flavour, and what flavour that actually _was_ there was largely cardboard-y and rooibos-y. Very much on the rooibos, actually, in spite of the bag wrapper not saying anything about it containing rooibos. In fact nowhere I look does it say anything about it containing rooibos so I can only conclude that it's not supposed to be there.
There was no vanilla in the flavour at all. Not one bit. As a matter of fact there wasn't even any black tea in the flavour either. Nothing. Not even a hint. All I could pick up was a watered down plain rooibos, which a) wasn't what I wanted, b) I don't even like that much and c) doesn't exist in this place. In fact you could have blindfolded me and let me taste it and I would have said it was a rooibos and I probably wouldn't even be
the slightest bit in doubt.
How in the name of all that is sweet and wholesome could this have gone so dreadfully dreadfully wrong? I wasn't expecting perfection but I thought I'd at least be able to get a mediocre cup of tea. I think I know the answer to this.
Cardboard. Cup.
I've had that happen before. A cardboard cup that stole _all_ the flavour from an otherwise strong and oversteeped teabag. It was like drinking just hot water. I think this phenomenon was at fault here too. It stole most of the flavour and warped what was left of it into the rooibos-y stuff.
I'm not going to give this a rating due it the nature of the taste-thieving cup. Under other circumstances this might actually have been a lovely tea, but right now after having tried it, I still have no clue what it tastes like.
Let this be a lesson for you, Steepsterites. *Cardboard to-go cups = Eeeeeeeevil! Beware!*Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:30:42 -0500/teas/Indian%20Night%20Decaf%20Black%20Vanilla/2438-indian-night-decaf-black-vanilla?post=27941
Caramel from Luka Te m.m.Hey, my supermarket have new do-it-yourself check outs! I scanned all my stuff myself and paid and everything. Great fun! It takes remarkably little to entertain me, but that's probably just because I'm not doing it 7½ hours every day five days a week.
I thought that called for some small amount of celebration, but since I'm on a strict mission to get through the pile of Teas To Be Finished Off, the dearly beloved pai mu tan is currently off limits. Luckily I had this caramel tea which I put in the pile not because it was almost out but more because I had completely forgotten I had it.
A rediscovery. It should do just fine. Using the steep.it site I've given it 4½ minutes. The label says 5-6 minutes but I thought 5 last night was a bit rough, so we're going for a slightly weaker route today. It's not as rich on the caramel and a little watery, so I'm not sure I like this weaker version better than the slightly rough five minutes steep.
Still though, based on how much I found I enjoyed it last night, although I didn't post about it, I gave it a small nudge upwards on the rating.Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:37:45 -0500/teas/Caramel/5995-caramel?post=28046
Green Pu Erh (EC22) from Nothing But TeaI've never tried had a green pu-erh before and I'm surprised at how large the leaves are.
Today's cup isn't very good for determining anything about colour. It looks a deep yellow, borderline orange, but it might be a bit off.
The aroma is rather sweet with a note of citrus fruits. It smells fresh. Not fresh as in 'just off the bush', but fresh as opposed to cloying. Fresh as in something that perks you up a bit. Airy. Not at all like regular pu-erh smells. I wouldn't even suspect this was a pu-erh if I didn't know it to be.
The flavour on the other hand completely blindsided me. Based on the aroma, this was NOT what I had expected. I thought I'd be getting something light and slightly sweet maybe with fruity hints. What I got was a strong green tea with some prickly notes on the side of the tongue and upon swallowing. But again, I wouldn't have guessed on a blind test that this had ever been anywhere near pu-erh. Knowing, however, that it is a pu-erh, I can recognise the aftertaste as such. Here it is much much more pu-erh-y than in ANY of the other parameters.
Nothing But Tea recommends using boiling water, which strikes me as odd considering that this is based on a green tea rather than a black, but maybe the fermentation into pu-erh hardens the leaves to better withstand the higher temperature, I don't know. I personally thought it best to let the water cool for a spell like I would with any other green tea. The steeping time was also based on NBT's recommendation.
What, I wonder, is this supposed to taste like? Is it really supposed to be like a strong, badly brewed green tea? Say it ain't so!
*ETA:* The wet leaves after steeping smell exactly like whiskas tinned cat food. Now I kind of wish I hadn't tried smelling those...Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:58:48 -0500/teas/Green%20Pu%20Erh%20(EC22)/8972-green-pu-erh-ec22?post=28075
Caramel from Luka Te m.m.I'm apparently all about the caramel these days. Luckily it's in my to be rid of pile, but clearly I had more of it than I thought.
It makes me wonder if I might not miss it after all when it runs out.Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:08:16 -0500/teas/Caramel/5995-caramel?post=28259
Chocolate Puerh from Numi Organic Tea*Jillian* sent me another couple of bags of this yummy yummy stuff. It seems fitting that I should have one of them this morning just as I stumble out of bed to find the winter olympics ceremony is on tv. I'm not sure if it's a direct transmission or not. If it is, it must be seriously late in Vancouver... But hey, I turned it on just a few minutes before the danish delegation came in. How's that for timing, eh? :)
Of course I did mess up the brewing of this. Yes, Angrboda can't even brew a teabag! It was a minor incident involving me pulling the string off the bag and then managing to poke a whole in the bag with a fork when trying to fish it out of the cup. Oh well, I'm used to having leaves in my cup. Just now this size. And I can probably resteep it, but I'm not sure it would be a good idea under these circumstances.
I was a little worried about whether I would like this less now that it's not christmas considering how it had initially reminded me of a liquid christmas cookie. I'm glad to report that even with christmas behind us and with a small teabag-mishap, it's still yummy.
Cheers, Steepsterites.
(Oh yeah, btw *Jillian*, your package arrived yesterday)Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:30:51 -0500/teas/Chocolate%20Puerh/2891-chocolate-puerh?post=28521
Cherry Vanilla Cola Black Tea from 52teasI'm giving this one another shot today. It's not in the pile of teas I'm supposed to be finishing off, I just wanted it, so it's a semi-sinful indulgence for me.
My first encounter with it was the inevitable disappointment that comes after having had seriously impossibly I'm-not-kidding expectations of it from the start. Second I tried to recreate the cola aspect in a more authentic sort of way by making a strong concentrate of it, putting it in the fridge and then mixing it with ordinary unflavoured carbonated water. This did *not* go well.
After that I was a bit put off and wondering what to do with all the rest of it.
Today though I'm trying again, to see what I think now that I'm not expecting it to be a miracle in a cup. I have to say I'm still getting a sort of artificial like soapy sort of flavour, but I can ignore that. Underneath is the astringency of the black tea base, which is probably in some way partly my own fault. I wasn't being very particular about steeping parameters. I can definitely find the cola and a touch of vanilla. The cherry, apart from in the aroma where it's strong, is still escaping me. Sat, 13 Feb 2010 10:11:47 -0500/teas/Cherry%20Vanilla%20Cola%20Black%20Tea/7168-cherry-vanilla-cola-black-tea?post=28536
Russian Caravan from Tea Center_Night and stars above that shine so bright
The myst'ry of their fading light
That shines upon our caravan_
I don't care if that's supposed to be a _desert_ caravan and not a russian one, it still pops into my head whenever I see the name of this blend. Rather like *JacquelineM's* River Shannon blend inevitably makes my brain go _Oh Shenandoe, I love your daughter..._ Even though it's not even the same river. Or the same country. Or the same continent. Can't help it.
This one was put in the to-be-finished-off pile due to it being sample-sized and, I'm sorry to admit, quite forgotten.
The aroma right now just after pouring is pure bonfire and a hint of what I think *Auggy* and *Takgoti* mean when they say 'burnt sugar'. Just a little bit. Not so much that you really recognise it as sweetness, but it's enough to make me stop an wonder what that was. The more I sniff at it, the more clearly it comes out along with a note of dark chocolate.
I steeped it only four minutes (using the phenomenal steep.it site), and the flavour here strikes me as rather smokey. There's something else too. I can't quite identify it but it's sort of like a middle thing between nuts and flour, or perhaps borderline cocoa-ish. Which weirdly is an entirely different flavour from both nuts and flour. Yeah, I don't know either.
It certainly has a good kick, but I do think it's a shame I did that shorter than usual steep just to see what would happen. I'm wondering what would have happened with that sweet note in the aroma if I hadn't done that.
*ETA:* As I make my way down through the cup and it cools off a little bit, the unidentifiable flavour is turning out more and more cocoa-y, I think.Sat, 13 Feb 2010 12:00:46 -0500/teas/Russian%20Caravan/5254-russian-caravan?post=28545
Passionfruit from Adagio TeasDear me, I sure am having a lot of tea today... Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:53:12 -0500/teas/Passionfruit/96-passionfruit?post=28576
Decaf Pumpkin Spice from Stash Tea CompanySmells pretty much like the one from 52teas. There's a peppery sort of note in the aroma too that prickles my nose and make me want to sneeze.
It's sweet. Somewhat spicy, it sort of warms that mouth with prickly. And then it's kind of sweet as if it has sugar in it.
I am still getting a hint of that slightly soapy, rough sort of flavour that I'm also getting in the one from 52teas, it's just less here. I'm thinking maybe that would be the pumpkin. And if that is the case then I'm still not sure I actually like pumpkin very much.
Thanks for letting me try it, though, *Jillian.*Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:28:53 -0500/teas/Decaf%20Pumpkin%20Spice/838-decaf-pumpkin-spice?post=28637
Silver Tips Imperial Darjeeling from MANTRA ESTUDIOSun, 14 Feb 2010 08:38:07 -0500/teas/Silver%20Tips%20Imperial%20Darjeeling/1137-silver-tips-imperial-darjeeling?post=28642
Tankha from The Simple LeafIt was one of _those_ days. Clumsy like a very hot place. At mid-afternoon I was thinking if we couldn't just skip the rest of today and go straight on with tomorrow. I needed a cup of tea really badly and actually had one planned until I came home and face to face with the to-be-finished pile. Right then. My conscience bid me to look through that first, and as I did I discovered a tea from *Bethany* that I had completely forgotten I had! First win of the day. No, really. First win.
I actually needed a cup so badly that I just brewed it up and quite forgot to even look at the leaves. I didn't even think to look up what sort of tea it was. Let's just say that I was lucky it wasn't a fragile green...
After having steeped it though, I looked it up and read the description. The colour was golden as promised and the aroma was floral and somewhat wood-y also as promised. There were some talk about notes of tropical fruit too, but I couldn't find any of that.
The flavour had the same sort of wood-y, almost rooibos-y note. What is it with me finding rooibos-y notes in indian teas lately? First that decaf indian vanilla thing from Numi the other day (the one with the Cup of DOOM!) and now this? Again, nothing on the tropical fruit front, though.
I'm not a fan of the wooden rooibos note, especially considering that there isn't any rooibos in it at all. I like oolongs but I swing towards the greener chinese ones, generally. I have yet to meet an indian oolong that I fell for. This one is from Darjeeling and even though a lot of black Darjeeling teas are technically borderline oolong, an actual oolong from the area just tastes kind of unfinished. I've had a Darjeeling oolong before, but that was years ago and I honestly can't remember anything about it, so I can't tell if this is characteristic or not.Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:45:26 -0500/teas/Tankha/7017-tankha?post=28839
Turkish Tea from UnknownThis one again. It's in my to be finished pile. Some of you will remember my first experience with it. Well, my colleague gave me the rest of what she had since she would never get around to using it herself anyway, not being a very big tea-drinker.
So I got the rest in a cleaned marmalade glass and can now inform you that she must have stored this in her spice cupboard. It's the only explanation I can come up with, because she swears the glass has only ever contained marmalade before and I can't really imagine that anyone in their right mind would make curry flavoured tea.
I _sincerely_ hope it only took on the curry in the aroma and that it will go away upon brewing!
I've used more leaf this time, for a more authentic experience, and am steeping the bejeezus out of it at the moment. One heaping teaspoon per cup (and then some, because the leaves are large and my teaspoons don't heap that well) and at least a fifteen minute steep in only half the amount of water.
The result is nearly as black as coffee, even when diluted half and half with freshly boiled water. The aroma is very tea-like and very very dark. Just by smelling it I can almost feel my tastebuds cowering in fear. There is, unfortunately, still a note of that blasted curry. Woe ruined leaves!
Authentic turkish tea is always taken sweetened with sugar, which I'm sure you could guess from the steeping parameter and dosage of leaves, but I am either fearless or remarkably foolish (the latter being more probable) so I gave it a test sip before sweetening.
ARGH! Astringent! My tongue is dead! I think it just turned to dust and disintegrated or something! Astringency, however, should not be confused with bitterness, of which there is none. As for the curry, I'm not sure. I feel like I can pick up a hint of it, but I'm not sure if that's not just because I know it's there and was half expecting to find an unauthorised flavour.
One teaspoon of sugar helps. Two is better. Three is perfect. There's still a lot of astringency there, but it's sweetened so much that the sugar go rather well with it. Like the astringency means it can handle more sweetener before it gets cloying and the sugar and astringency in combination sort of bring out each other's best qualities. Bit like in a sweet and sour sauce.
My tongue is all prickly and confused, though. It can't seem to decide between _'AAAAH! Astringent! Shrivel!'_ and _'OOOOH! Sugar! More!'_ It's a strange sensation.
Also, having tasted carefully, I definitely can't pick up the curry. Maybe smell contamination isn't such a serious thing when you give the leaves such a harsh treatment.
I stand by my initial rating. It's much different from what I normally understand to be tea, but it's still quite nice. It's not a brewing method I'll be using very often, but it's fun enough to do once in a while for the exotic experience.Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:32:52 -0500/teas/Turkish%20Tea/2322-turkish-tea?post=29081
Jasmine Blossom from Stash Tea CompanyA case of mistaken identities have placed a hand-delivered non-signed envelope of creepiness in my letterbox today. Print outs of someone else's private email conversations of a personal nature. In place a VERY personal nature. It's creepy enough that I'll be saving envelope+contents for a while and see if anything else happens, because my immediate guess is that somewhere out there there is a betrayed wife thinking that I'm someone else. And she knows where I live. And she doesn't know that I'm not Not-Me even though Not-Me has the same name as me.
Luckily I have also received a package from *TeaEqualsBliss* which is MUCH less creepy and in which I found among others this tea with which I will try to calm myself down again. I was stumped by the amount of choice available to me! Eventually I decided that since I needed some fairly quick nerve-settling a bag was the thing to go for this time. I picked this one by closing my eyes and choosing one at random.
I'm a bit wary of the brand. I've seen a lot of posts about this brand and most people seemed to find it somewhat mediocre.
It definitely smells jasmine-y while steeping and not synthetic. So that's one point in favour. The flavour is a bit... brine-y and a bit flowery. It's not like the jasmine green to end all jasmine greens. But it's nice enough.
And was it capable to stop my imagination getting out of control RE post intro? To an extent yes, so that's another point in favour.Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:12:36 -0500/teas/Jasmine%20Blossom/645-jasmine-blossom?post=29111
Refresh (Filter bag version) from TazoLook at me with a tisane! Be sure to pay attention, Steepsterites, as this is not something that happens that often, but it's too late really for tea when I'm trying to re-learn getting to bed at a proper hour, and I wanted to try something else of what *TeaEqualsBliss* sent me.
I dipped my sleeve in the cup (no, not on purpose), so it's not starting well.
It smells strongly of spearmint and I can't really find any tarragon. It's like a mix of toothpaste and that chewing gum that my mother prefers. Daunting... Maybe it can help on my stomach reflux though. (Oh avocado... so yummy, yet so deceitful!)
It tastes a bit like that chewing gum too, but it's not as overwhelmingly spearmint-y as I had expected. I think it's because the tarragon is lying down a base and controlling it. It's just spearmint-y enough to give me that prickling on the tongue and brief fresh mouth sensation. The latter doesn't seem to last very long after swallowing, but then again, it's a tisane, not a tooth-paste replacement.
Tisanes don't really interest me at all, and I don't buy them unless for someone else or because I want to mix with stuff. Although I'd be unlikely to purchase this if the brand was available here, I still like it rather more than I thought I would.
Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:55:20 -0500/teas/Refresh%20(Filter%20bag%20version)/2180-refresh-filter-bag-version?post=29164
Chocolate Puerh from Numi Organic TeaMy immediate leader in the lab also happens to be one of my best friends at work in spite of her being a couple of years older than my mother. We are so similar in so many ways. Today after work we went and saw the Percy Jackson film and ate a lot of sweets. A *LOT* of sweets. Let's put it this way, I have more or less had sweets for dinner, okay? Things got out of hand.
I need something to wash all that sugar down and yes, I'm aware of the irony of having chosen a chocolate tea for the purpose. I just really wanted this tonight. Fortunately I still had one of the two bags that *Jillian* sent me AND *TeaEqualsBliss* also remembered that I liked this one and added a bag of it to the package I got from her yesterday. So I'm having it now and I still have a bag left. Lovely.
Oh, and the film? If you like adventures like Harry Potter and similar, go see it. It's
awesome and I need to read those books like whoa! It can seriously not go fast enough.Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:33:47 -0500/teas/Chocolate%20Puerh/2891-chocolate-puerh?post=29305
Plum Good Tea from Eastern Shore Tea CompanyIt's really stupid at this hour, but I just didn't feel like I was done with tea tonight. I fought against it as long as I could, but only managed to become more and more convinced that I should try one of these plum things that *TeaEqualsBliss* sent me.
I had too look this one up to tell what sort of tea it was. Nothing about that on the little envelope holding the bag.
The bag has a funny spicy smell that I wasn't expecting. I couldn't quite place it at first, but when looking it up I saw that it contained cinnamon and all the little wheels and cogs in my head clicked into place. I wouldn't say I thought it was _obvious_ cinnamon, but it was close enough.
It strikes me as a funny combination, plums and cinnamon. I can't really imagine that. The cup smells rather like chai when steeping too, but I'm pretty sure I'm picking up some fruity sweetness underneath the cinnamon-y sweetness. It's actually rather christmas-y to smell!
The taste is surprisingly good. I would never in a bazillion years have imagined that these two flavours would work that well together but they do! It's like two kinds of sweetness keeping each other from being too much.
It's not perfect and there is a certain level of syntheticness, but apart from that I'm rather impressed with this one.Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:34:38 -0500/teas/Plum%20Good%20Tea/6174-plum-good-tea?post=29323
Peppermint from ThepottenWhen I put this in the to be finished pile I didn't mean for it to be finished off like this, but I read that peppermint can help calm an upset stomach. Also I had a weird instinct about wanting peppermint tisane.
If nothing else it helps with the bad taste after.... yeah, you know.Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:25:14 -0500/teas/Peppermint/6292-peppermint?post=29615
Melon from PickwickI've had nothing but water and peppermint tisane to drink since mid-morning saturday. I am absolutely dying for a cup of proper tea now. I was already yesterday, but I was still feeling delicate enough that I didn't dare have anything with caffeine in it. The only decaf I have was given to me in swaps and they deserve more attention that I would be able to give them while sick. Today I'm down to the monumental headache that always shows up post illness, so I'm having a tentative go at a small cup of tea.
Just in case, though, I've chosen a cheap and mediocre one. It wouldn't feel as much of a waste.
Mediocre or not though, _you lot have NO IDEA how good this is right now!!!_ This could have been the worst quality tea in the world and it would still have been lovely. If this had been the first time I logged this one I would have given it a 100. I don't care about the semi-synthetic melon or the way that the tea is only barely present underneath. Just having a cup of _tea_ is enough, and any tea will do.
Maybe I can even have some real food today too...Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:27:16 -0500/teas/Melon/6035-melon?post=29782
Assam Deluxe FTGFOP from A C Perch'sStomach is fine now. Head, not so much. A good strong black is needed, to-be-finished pile be damned. Nothing is working properly inside my skull today. I tried checking my dashboard, and JacquelineM's post about the (by now) infamous and tres yummy raspberry oolong was on top. After that one though, I suddenly found myself realising that I was just scrolling and forgetting to pay attention.
This has a strong wood-y sort of aroma which promises a kick in the rear and a clearing of the mind. After brewing the aroma turns towards the sweeter and more honey-y, but still as strong, and still definitely the same smell as the dry leaves. Just altered a little bit.
I'm suddenly beginning to understand what Auggy means when she says Assam has a cardboard like flavour. There is a strong unmistakeble cardboard flavour here. It's not unpleasant, it's just... odd. This is uncomplicated. It's an Assam that tastes of Assam and that's really all there is to it. If I had been more in favour of Indian teas over Chinese, I'd probably have rated this better.
Not sure if it really helped my mental state much though. It might be just placebo.
Really messy post, this. I'll just stop it here and go away and go back to being a sporadic presence for another few days. I'm sure you won't mind.Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:45:29 -0500/teas/Assam%20Deluxe%20FTGFOP/8117-assam-deluxe-ftgfop?post=29963
Irish Breakfast from Adagio TeasIt's wednesday, my regular day off and I've taken the rest of the week off as well. (This, btw, has nothing to do with illness, it was already planned, so no worries there). After the restorative power of yesterday's Assam, I felt like giving this on the that TeaEqualsBliss sent me.
I didn't really find any aroma to speak off, but my nose feels a bit like it's considering acting up a little bit, so I don't fully trust my sense of smell. I don't think it's all there at the moment.
The flavour, however, reveals the cardboard-y note of Assam. I probably wouldn't really have picked that one out so easily if it hadn't been for yesterday's Assam and the revelation that was the cardboard note. (Sometimes I feel like I'm nicking all of Auggy's words, but they're such good words!).
It also has a surprising sweetness. Smooth, almost creamy. I'm not the sort of person to put milk in anything, even if it is recommended to me. I always try it plain first, and usually that's the way I'll drink it. Milk is an added occasional luxury. Maybe that's why, to me, it doesn't take very much for a tea to taste like it already had a drop of milk in it.
Maybe it's some sort of phantom flavour. Like phantom pains where a patient may still feel the sensations of the amputated limb. I can almost taste the flavour that isn't there. Or something.
It's not really something that I would connect with a Ceylon, though, so I think that's because of how the blend is coming together.
Funny thing is that if I were to break this apart and have the Assam on its own and the Ceylon on its own, then I don't really think I would be more then fleetingly impressed with either of them. But together it's a different story and they come together quite well.
I have a good amount of this and it could easily become one of my stable teas, but I have put the Irish Morning Tea from A C Perch's on my shopping list for when I run out. The European Adagio shop carries the Irish Breakfast, but I thought it would be nice to get some comparison and some
different perspective on it. (Besides A C Perch's is probably quicker and cheaper for me, what with being a danish company. Especially since I'm shopping there anyway)
Of course I had to add the A C Perch's blend to the site first, and then I unleashed the full force of OCD on the A C Perch's teas already in the database. They all have pictures and proper descriptions now, except the one that I couldn't seem to find. (I hope I didn't accidentally step on anybody's toes with this) I even discovered that the genmaicha I had from them wasn't their genmaicha at all, but a variation. The things you learn...
Anyway, this Irish Breakfast. Quite surprisingly yummy. I don't know what's going on with that, I'm supposed to prefer Chinese!Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:04:55 -0500/teas/Irish%20Breakfast/53-irish-breakfast?post=30076
Japanese Emperor Blend from A C Perch'sThe genmaicha that wasn't genmaicha! I could have sworn it said 'genmaicha' on the label at the bottom of the tin when I got it, but now it says Japanese Emperor Blend. Odd. I can't understand why I didn't initially add it as such. It never even occurred to me to go to their site and see if they had a regular genmaicha as well or not. Which, as it turns out, they had. That should all be taken care of now though. This is the genmaicha with matcha powder in it.
This one is also in the to-be-finished pile. I got the tin as a free present from A C Perch's when I bought their book because I ordered on the day that it was released. I didn't even know they offered this, so that was an awesome surprise. Anyway, I used it sparingly and eventually forgot about it, which was stupid, because it's A C Perch's! It's not like I can't get more.
Down to one more serving of it though. I thought that was what I had left before making this pot. I'll never get through that pile...Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:04:07 -0500/teas/Japanese%20Emperor%20Blend/4620-japanese-emperor-blend?post=30123
Caramel from Luka Te m.m.Ah dessert!
Once upon a time it had little caramel bits in it too, making it even sweeter and caramel-ier than it is now. Those bits aren't there anymore, because... I may possibly have accidentally kind of a little bit eaten them, but totally not on purpose. Or something.
Only one more serving of this left too, I think. Problem with that is that every time I think there's just the one pot left and I make that, there always seem to be leaves enough left for one more pot...
I'm pretty likely to get another caramel tea when this one is out. But I think I'll try to find one somewhere else and broaden my horizon a bit. It's not one of those that I must replace urgently.
(_"Sporadic presence," she said... Ha!_
You are thinking it, Steepsterites. You know you are.)Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:53:33 -0500/teas/Caramel/5995-caramel?post=30143
Nepal Top Oolong from A C Perch'sGood morning Steepsterites.
I've made this a bit unpleasant today. The tin I keep it in is tall and narrow, so it's a bit difficult to get the scoop in and get a proper spoonful of leaves. I think I used too much leaf today. I tried to compensate with a shorter than normal steep but it hasn't really worked. Not short enough.
It has that nutty bitterness that just sits on your tongue and constantly reminds you that, _"I'm drinkable, yeah... But I'm not supposed to be here. Oolong, ur doin it rong!"_
And that's really distracting, you know? It makes it impossible to taste around it like you can with some other mistakes. Or maybe it's just impossible this morning, I don't know.
Either way, I surrender. Now I want something else.
Anything else.Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:10:23 -0500/teas/Nepal%20Top%20Oolong/4585-nepal-top-oolong?post=30228
Pu Ti Cha from TeaSpringAnd that was it. The last of the sooper-speshul (and wildly expensive) sanctified Da Hong Pao. It was in the to-be-finished pile because, well, as special as it is, you can't keep it forever. And also, I need the tin.
I've bought a regular (and much less expensive) Da Hong Pao to replace it, so finally finishing this off was such a terrible loss. At least that's what I tell myself.
It's a good cup. Every bit as good as it was that first time when I finally made myself open the little satchet and brew up half.
I'm getting that chocolate-y note on this one again. Both in aroma and in flavour. It's actually reminding me of Adagio's Black Dragon Pearls a bit, except this one seems to have more character, I think. The pearls were good, but at the same time also kind of ordinary.
There are floral hints too but not so many that you think it must have been contaminated or that they have secretly scented it, and not so few that you have to sit and search for them.
I've brewed it a bit differently this time with steep times and leaf amount, (brave after the Nepal Top fiasco, I know) because I didn't have enough leaf left that it was worth saving if I used the normal amount of leaves.
In spite of that, I'm recognising everything that I wrote in the first review. It seems like what we've got here is a consistently good tea. I haven't yet tried the regular Da Hong Pao, but I have high expectations of it because of this one.Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:34:28 -0500/teas/Pu%20Ti%20Cha/5632-pu-ti-cha?post=30231
High Grade Ginseng Oolong (OC03) from Nothing But TeaOnce upon a time I had a ginseng oolong from Chaplon. They said that it had a licorice-y aftertaste which was what pulled me in. And it did! It was quite nice, actually. But it must not have sold too well, because the last time I visited Chaplon's website, the same ginseng oolong was now being sold as _ginseng fertilizer!!!_ Underneath it said 'ginseng oolong' in smaller font. I looked really hard at the pictures, and I read the description. I am _positive_ that it's the same one. Fertilizer.
I wish I was making this up, Steepsterites. Srsly.
This one from Nothing But Tea, however, was included in my oolong sampler pack from them, and it looks like I remember the Chaplon one looked. I believe that may actually be the reason that it didn't swell very well. This tea has the most bizarre looking leaves ever. They don't even look live leaves. They're all rolled up and covered in ginseng powder, so that what you actually get are little tiny pellets with a smooth surface. They look like pebbles. I can imagine that this was not entirely pleasing to the conservative danish eye.
Interestingly NBT's offering is apparently quite popular according to their site...
The aroma is rather difficult to decipher. It's a sort of mix between cocoa, butter and something like fresh wood. Like if you break a twig off a tree and smell it. It's not really one note over any of the others but it doesn't feel like an equal mix of the three either. I don't know what ginseng is supposed to smell like, but I expect it's probably ginseng I can smell.
Tastewise, it's pretty watery. I winged the brewing of it and it definitely tastes like I did something or other wrong. My immediate guess would be not enough leaf combined with not long enough steep. As it cools a bit, flavours start coming out more and it gains an almost pu-erh-y flavour. Dark and earthy. And yes, there it is. The vaguely licorice-y note at the back of the throat on the swallow.
I'll have to remember to only make half the pot with the half sample I have left, because it definitely tastes like it could have taken a huge benefit from being stronger here and it's actually not very difficult to imagine what it might have been like if brewed better than this.
Is it better or worse than the fertilizer from Chaplon? I can't say. It's been four years since I had that, so I can't really compare there. But either way if I were to get more or this, I would definitely go for Nothing But Tea's. Mainly because even though it is the same product I absolutely refuse to brew up and drink a tea that has been sold as fertilizer. (Also Chaplon's is only sold in 800g batches...) I don't know, though, whether or not this is something I want to buy. It's good, but it's not brilliant. I'll have to think about whether or not it's good enough.
Also, unrelated. Mentioned in a PM conversation today how I could really do with some more teapot storage space, so hey, have a couple of pictures! (These should also explain without the need of words why Adagio's plastic offerings or even the Sorapot don't appeal to me. I prefer a classic pot.)
Pots in use: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30057436@N04/4387919808/
Pots no longer in use: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30057436@N04/4387920294/Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:51:48 -0500/teas/High%20Grade%20Ginseng%20Oolong%20(OC03)/8818-high-grade-ginseng-oolong-oc03?post=30272
Imperial Pu erh (EP06) from Nothing But TeaAs this is a very long post indeed, here is a *summary* for those with short attention span.
Tea is very good. Smooth and with some smoky notes. It lasts for many steeps, and provokes rather a lot of mental images about cattle. Yes, cattle. The animals that say moo.
And the *actual post:*
I was sorely tempted to try to write this whole entire post in the royal We, it being Imperial and all that. But then I decided that I would find that annoying to read in a long post if someone else did it, so it would undoubtedly be equally as annoying to write. So I didn't.
I don't really know why I was in pu-erh mood this morning. Usually specific moods and cravings like that have something to do with what I have just seen other people post about. A famous example here is *Mike* and that caramel black he's got that always makes me want to go and make mine.
But that wasn't it this time. I had decided on being in a pu-erh mood, before I even started looking at my Dashboard page. Maybe I was dreaming about cows last night or something like that.
Anyway, I dithered a bit between my various pu-erh samples from Nothing But Tea and eventually landed on this one. The word 'Imperial' rather appealed to me this morning.
I did a short 15 second pre steep, and then steeped for _30 seconds_ in not quite boiling water.
This tea has aroma all over the place! It's a little sweet and a little flowery. Quite summerly and very pleasant. Some of you may recall that I rather like that note in pu-erhs that reminds me of an oldfashioned cowstable. Not the milk or meat factories we have today, but a small stable with maybe five to ten cows all lined up eating hay and waiting for someone to come and milk them by hand. Maybe they're even plotting kicking over the bucket a time or two for some brief bovine entertainment. (I have mental images of giggling cows now....)
Anyway, I like that note in a pu-erh. As is evident, it speaks to my imagination. Even when it isn't there, because this pu-erh doesn't have that note. Oh, the cows are there, all right. Only they're not in the stable. Here, they're out in the meadow, eating grass and with little calves running around them playing moo.
First sip blindsided me. Scratchy! Rough. Almost smoky. Who set fire to my cow pasture?! I mean, hey I like smoky in tea. Heck, I _love_ smoky in tea. I just wasn't expecting it here. As it cools down a bit, it smooths out completely and the scratchy smoky bit is gone. It's gone all round and slightly earthy but without being dusty or mouldy. There's even something a little flowery on the swallow there. It's vague, but it's there.
_Second time around, 45 seconds._
The aroma is stronger. The cows are still in the pasture and there's an earthy note. Like, maybe it just rained. I can almost see the rainbow.
Tastewise, it's stronger here. The smoky note is more apparent in the beginning, but it still turns smooth after a while. There's a slightly dusty note on it now and the floral swallow is gone. It's still nicely round though, and it's going quite well with this piece of chocolate I'm eating.
_Third time around, 45 seconds._
I went for the same steep time this time instead of a full minute, because the second steep had turned so much stronger than the first on just those 15 seconds.
It's earthier here. I think a cow just took a good roll in the dust out there on the pasture. Look at how she's wiggling her legs! The scratchy has gone from the initial sips, it's just plain smoothness. I suspect it's because I didn't increase the steeping time.
_Fourth time around, 1 minute._
The cows are back in the stable. There are definite stable-notes in the aroma now, although the cows are still rather smelling of fresh air.
The scratchy flavour is back again with the longer steep. Although it still smooths out as it cools, it takes longer for it to do so. The smoky note is much more pronounced now and it doesn't go away.
It's odd, really. You would think that a smoky note would go away over time and steeps, not increase in intensity.
Maybe it's a good thing I didn't go for that royal We thing. How something called 'Imperial' can turn out to be so very peasant-y, I'm not really sure, but the royal We totally wouldn't have worked in this post at all.
These are just the first four steeps and I'm posting here because this is already turning out to be a very long entry. I dare not think how long it would be if I were to continue it until the leaves had been worn out. I've been drinking this tea from this morning when I got up around 8 o'clock and until now where it's about half past two. It's the only tea I've had all day, and I haven't grown bored with it yet. I'm definitely going to be getting me some more of this later on.
It's rather an inspiring tea. I think I'll be doing some writing now.
MOO!Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:37:44 -0500/teas/Imperial%20Pu%20erh%20(EP06)/7669-imperial-pu-erh-ep06?post=30379
Passionfruit from Adagio TeasLast of my sample! Another one off the to-be-finished pile. I'm beginning to believe there's hope for me there.
I put all my Adagio samples on that pile. I don't know. Some of them were really nice, but none of them has been delicious enough that I wanted more, and most of them I've just grown bored with. This one is the last of the fruity ones, not counting the Valentine sample that TeaEqualsBliss sent me and in which I can't for the life of me find any strawberries try as I might. (I haven't posted about this yet, but I have taken notes. It's one of the ones I'll be backlogging eventually when I can put a post together)
But this isn't about the Valentine.
For a fruity tea, this one is definitely decent. Slightly artificial in flavour, I think, but all in all decent. I seem to be more pleased with Adagio's fruit flavours than with their other flavours. The cinnamon is seriously getting nowhere.
It's not one I'm sad that I've finished off. On the contrary it was rather a WIN-moment that the pile had become a little smaller.
I don't know. I used to be enamoured with Adagio because of their enormous selection of interesting flavours. Now I think I've just fallen out of love with them all together.Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:04:22 -0500/teas/Passionfruit/96-passionfruit?post=30516
Silver Tips Imperial Darjeeling from MANTRA ESTUDIOThe last of this, and thereby also the last of three different Darjeeling teas I once received as a gift from a friend I met elsewhere on the internet. She lives, or lived at the time as she appears to have disappeared from the internet, in Darjeeling and from what I understood bought her tea more or less directly from the estate. Cool, eh? She sent me this white tea, a first flush and a muscatel. I finished off the latter two long ago.
I had this on the to-be-finished pile, but I was finally inspired to finish off the rest of it now when I watched a program on Viasat History with Victoria Wood travelling around the Commonwealth and visiting the former British colonies and specifically places that were named after Queen Victoria, as she were. Naturally she also came to Darjeeling and was presented with the idea of 'white tea', supposedly for the first time. _"Everybody knows tea is brown. Two sugars. And milk. Indian tea. From China."_ or some such I believe her bemused quote was.
Anyway, she visited an organic tea plantation, the owner of which was called Rajah. I remembered that Makaibari is organic and I thought I remembered having heard that the owner was called Rajah, but they didn't say anything about estate name or even family names, so I wasn't sure until they gave her a cup of white Darjeeling tea called Silver Tips Imperial, which had fetched a record-high price making it the most expensive tea in the world at the time. Then I was sure. It was this one.
Cool!
Victoria Wood found that she liked it and that it was quite subtle in flavour. Rajah told her that it had four 'layers' or 'levels' or some such of flavour, but unfortunately didn't go further into the subject. Or if he did, they didn't show it. My tongue isn't really developed enough to discern whether or not it does and I'm not experienced enough with Darjeelings in general either, but seeing as the Estate has been owned by his family for generations I trust the man to know what he's talking about.
I can only find a nutty basic flavour with a flowery note on top. Maybe a hint of grass. Rather nice but not overwhelming for anything else than it being so unusual.
I do wish I knew what those four levels Rajah mentioned were. Like having a cheat-sheet to tea.Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:33:54 -0500/teas/Silver%20Tips%20Imperial%20Darjeeling/1137-silver-tips-imperial-darjeeling?post=30537
Coconut Cream Pie from 52teasThis is what's for dessert today.
Lovely. Really, it is.
It's just... I'm really craving the infamous raspberry oolong tonight and I'm coming to the conclusion that I have precious few fruity teas in the flat.
I'll sip this and read a few pages of my book while waiting for Top Gear to come on.
(And OMG I just realised something completely unrelated RE Mariages Freres...!!! No, I'm not saying. Don't want to get my own hopes up. Be_LIEVE_ me, if I'm right, my Steepsterites, you will find out. All in due time.)Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:28:43 -0500/teas/Coconut%20Cream%20Pie/555-coconut-cream-pie?post=30552
Irish Breakfast - Extra Fancy from Red Leaf TeaHere's another Irish breakfast that TeaEqualsBliss sent me. It's been a while since I had the one from Adagio and all I remember about that one at the moment is that I could pick up the cardboard-y Assam and that the Assam and Ceylon, none of which I'm completely sold on on their own (especially the Ceylon), came together to show me whole new levels. We shall see how this one fares in comparison.
The leaves are all golden and large and pretty so that's a good start right there. After steeping it has that honey-y Assam smell and it's pretty strong in the beginning, but once the cup has been sitting for a bit it it goes away and becomes more of a hint. Underneath that it just smells rather like a Ceylon and it's making me hesitant to taste it because it makes me expect that wildly astringent, tannic flavour.
Oh well, here goes.
Yes. Ceylon. Definitely. Not as astringent as I had feared, but there is definitely some of it there. The Assam cardboard-y quality is there too, but it's just sort of flat and it gives me a funny aftertaste. Normally I like it when a tea lasts, when there's a lingering aftertaste, but this one is really kind of odd and borderline unpleasant.
I don't have any milk around the place at the moment which I believe would improve that a whole lot, but half a teaspoon of cane sugar seems to bring out the honey note of both teas a little more and that helps.
Astringency levels are rising though, which I could definitely have lived without.
I have a smaller sample of this than I do of Adagio's Irish Breakfast, and I'll have to say that I really prefer Adagio's here. I'm planning on investing in an Irish Breakfast from AC Perch's rather than getting Adagio's, but this is making me wonder if it might not be best to stick with Adagio and not rock the boat. I probably will still get AC Perch's because I've been otherwise so pleased with their teas, which is definitely not something I can say for Adagio, but I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about it all right now. I do wish AC Perch's would offer samples instead of that 100g minimum limit.Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:44:49 -0500/teas/Irish%20Breakfast%20-%20Extra%20Fancy/8193-irish-breakfast-extra-fancy?post=30615
Da Hong Pao from TeaSpringCan't be bothered to actually type out a whole entire post on this right now... This is what a 'raw' post looks like... Take it as a silly interlude or some thing...
must live up to pu ti cha
colour as orange as an orange (artistic leaves!)
can't find chocolate-y note, may have somth to do w steep time and temp. also not sure ab leaf am in this pot
taste alm black, but not quite. sweeter than aver black and strangely w a peppery note.
Can find same sort of floral sweetness that is more floral than sweet.
live up to pu ti cha? yes, tastewise (special wise it can't cos not sanctified)
knocking off a few for non-sanctifiedness, 85-90Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:18:30 -0500/teas/Da%20Hong%20Pao/8707-da-hong-pao?post=30625
Sencha Overture from Adagio TeasI can haz stealth tea!
As in I once mentioned not being very familiar with japanese greens apart from some sencha way back when and a few assorted and barely remembered samples. And genmaicha, of course, which is almost a category all to itself. This lead to a swap between *EvaPeva* and myself, only yours truly sent out a package and then forgot all about.
Imagine my surprise when I find a big yellow envelope in my letterbox this afternoon! This day started out with some pretty solid reluctance to go to work, finding out that work wasn't actually so bad (following up Uber-Bad tuesday with a day in which everything just _works_.) and then coming home to this! Only downside is now I'm wondering if I've ripped *EvaPeva* off, because... _pokes selection_ Wow. Let's just say that I am most definitely about to be edumacated in japanese greens!
Anyway, after wibbling for a while about which one to try first (and writing the intro to this post), I decided on a sencha because that's always the first one that comes to my mind when I think 'japanese green' and because there seems to have been an outbreak of people singing the praises of sencha lately. I was feeling a little inspired by that.
The leaves have a lovely colour. Such a deep, dark green, like pine needles. That's one of my favourite colours, so that's a few points in favour right there. They have a sweet, grassy smell too which is actually really nice. It's funny, I'm sure I've used the word 'grassy' before, but it wasn't until I smelled this one that I really feel like I figured out what I actually mean with that.
I don't own a fancy-pants thermometer and usually when I need water of a lower temperature than boiling I just wait and let it cool off for a bit and wing it from there. I have a funny instinct that with this one I should wait just a wee bit longer than I usually do. Not sure why, it's just an feeling, so I'm going with that and arming myself with patience here. (Maybe at this point I ought to actually go to Adagio's site and look it up...). So here we are. Waiting. Patiently. Or something.
Okay, I've waited long enough!
It has that funny radioactive neon yellow-y green colour that makes me wonder if tea can actually glow in the dark (wouldn't it we cool if it could?). I always thought that the smell of genmaicha must be largely due to the popped rice, because it had this toasted sort of smell. Not like popcorn, but something kind of along the lines. I've just discovered that that wasn't really the rice at all. Not unless someone invented invisible rice. It's a green sort of toasty though. I have a suspicion that I ought to be able to recognise this aroma as being similar to something else. Just can't think what it could be. Asparagus maybe? Or something like that.
For such a relatively pale tea it sure does have a lot of flavour. A _LOT_ lot! I'm thinking spinach here. And a little butter.
Second cup has a bit of a bite to it what with the way I have the leaves loose in the pot and all, but it's still that same spinach-y flavour underneath. With a little butter. And a lot of bite. This is also where that toasty, slightly nutty, flavour comes out more. I don't think I've been oversteeping my genmaicha, as I was barely even steeping it at all, but I'm definitely recognising the flavour from there.
...Sooo, if I drink a tea that smells like asparagus and tastes like spinach, does that mean I can get out of eating my greens?
Anyway, lesson the first in japanese green: Very nice! I could fall for this one. Next will be to see how this particular one holds up to other senchas. An adventure for another day.Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:44:55 -0500/teas/Sencha%20Overture/221-sencha-overture?post=30783
Sencha Overture from Adagio TeasJust sitting here waiting for the pathologist to show up, so I figured I might as well start telling you about my morning travel-cup tea today. Because you know how it is. Start doing something else, and they'll show up. Quite surprised he isn't here already, actually.
Anyway, I was feeling lazy this morning but I wanted to bring some tea along. I don't always, it depends on what I feel like and how (yup, there he was, and now he's run off again) sleepy I'm feeling. This morning I wondered whether or not to brew up a batch something or other inconsequential, but I couldn't be bothered and the leaves from last night were _right there_
I have to say though that third steep wasn't as successful as the first two. Very little flavour to speak of. So either it can only do two proper good steeps that I can be bothered to drink or it's just not suited for travelling. I tried drinking some of it with the lid off too, but I didn't really get much out of it. It wasn't that it just tasted like warm water, but it wasn't the same thing as last night either. Thinner maybe. A bit more... generic, sort of.
It's difficult to explain, but it's not really something I think I'll do again. I'd probably try a third steep at home in my proper porcelain teapot and see how that goes, but not for travelling. Definitely not for travelling.
And the pathologist left again... We'll never get done.Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:07:23 -0500/teas/Sencha%20Overture/221-sencha-overture?post=30866
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.Yes, yes, I know, I'm supposed to be eddicated in japanese greens. But I had that lovely sencha yesterday (and this morning) and tonight I was supposed to have one of the other ones for a bit of comparison. Thing is, though, I'm absolutely and completely pooped. Weird really with how little I've had to do (apart, that is, from my previous post. Said pathologist is a very friendly guy. Just... keeping track of him is like herding fleas sometimes)
Anyway, I don't think I can think well enough to actually sit here and learn stuff about green tea. So I thought I'd just go for something I know, something that I don't have to think that much about. I've got a generic gunpowder of unknown origins and that one is fairly... ordinary.
But then I saw this tin. And realised how long ago it's been since I had any. That is so not okay!
Oh my yummy Pai Mu Tan! Nomtastic!
You know... disregarding the fact that I was impatient with the water and didn't let it get cool enough, so it's gone a bit bitter. The walnut stopped being so obviously walnut. It still has that round, slick flavour though, so all is not lost and it's still a lovely cup.
Just ever so slightly abused. Bit like me. Thank all deities tomorrow's wednesday!Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:58:45 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=30938
Valentines from Adagio TeasGood morning, Steepsterites.
I got this one from TeaEqualsBliss, and actually tried it for the first time a little while ago. I took backlog notes then, so this post is going to be a combination of three different sessions with this particular tea.
The first time I had it, I paid attention to the aroma, something I neglected to do with the other two times. It actually smelled like milk chocolate. Not cocoa, like so many supposedly chocolate-flavoured teas do, but real chocolate that you could eat.
I found the flavour to be sort of hazel nutty and chocolate-nutty, but no the same sort of milk chocolate that I had found in the aroma. That was a little disappointing. It had an ever so slightly flowery note which makes me wonder what those orange bits in the leaves are. Given that it's a valentine's blend, my first instinct is rose petals, but orange rose petals? Anyway, it was possibly a little oversteeped as it had turned ever so sllightly bitter. And as for the strawberries, uh, where exactly were they? I couldn't find even the smallest hint of fruit in either aroma or flavour.
All in all, I wasn't particularly impressed and would have given it around 40-50. It wasn't bad. But it wasn't good either.
Second session was last night when I decided to take a cup with me to bed while reading. Not really sure what I did. I used the regular amount of leaf and boiling water. Then I winged it on the steeping time and eventually poured a cup, suspecting that it had had just a wee bit too much.
That was a whole other story! The chocolate-y bits of the flavour and the slightly floral bits were more milk-chocolate-y this time but otherwise the same as before. But THERE! There they were, the elusive strawberries. Very very clearly. A fruity sweetness just underneath all the chocolate-y notes.
Much, much better, but still not something that I would say was amazingly awesome. Based only on this session I would have gone up to 65-70 points.
Encouraged by the second session I decided to make up another pot of it this morning. I wanted that sweet strawberry and milk chocolate again. Just a shame that I didn't actually know how I had really brewed it the day before. I used standard amount of leaves and boiling water, but when it came to the steeping time I had no clue. So I had to wing it.
And guess what I got. First session again. Slightly bitter, very hazel nutty and not even remotely sweet or fruity. Apparently this is a tea that has to be steeped _just so_ to be at its best.
I'm rating it as a compromise between these three sessions.Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:25:28 -0500/teas/Valentines/105-valentines?post=31024
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch'sOnce upon a time I found a very sweet note in this tea. As if sugar had been added to it when I hadn't actually put anything in it at all. I've been trying to find that sweetness again, but I just can't. I feel a bit like *Sophistre* in the quest for caramel notes in her Jackee Muntz from Andrews & Dunham. Only not yet as frustrated with the lack of success.
Keyword here is "yet".
How the heck did I ??do?? that?
I do hope I'll figure it out. I know it's there. I know I didn't dream it up. I'll just have to play with temperature and steeping time a little more. I'm beginning to suspect the secret lies in the temperature, because altering the steeping time hasn't really yielded any results. Or, actually, that's not true, there has been some results. A fair number of yummy cups, yes. Sweet notes, no.
If the temperature is indeed the key to this puzzle, then I guess I'll have to invest in a thermometer of some kind. Just... *counts money* Not right now.
In the meantime, I can bypass the frustrating hunt for sweet notes. Yes, I know this pinch of cane sugar is cheating, but it gives me (almost) what I want without the hassle. So sue me.Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:06:19 -0500/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=31031
Valentines from Adagio TeasInterestingly, given the amount of points I decided to give this one, I seem to be racing through the sample TeaEqualsBliss gave me. Adagio sample tin sized sample that is. I can usually make those last a good while.
I've had this one three times already, four with this one, and I think the reason I'm going through it so quickly is because of how nommy it was that second time when I managed to bring out the strawberries.
Not sure how I did that. Maybe it was a temperature thing? (Temperature! The bane of my existance!) Not owning a thermometer I had to get a little creative. Luckily the http://steep.it site has proven helpful here. No clue what the temperature is, but I can standardise it somehow by boiling a set amount of water and then timing how long I wait before using it after it has been brought to a boil. 1 liter, 2 minutes wait.
So did it work? Were there strawberries?
Hard to say, actually. You see, I just ate some lemon pudding... My tastebuds are all screwed up now. Can't really tell what it tastes like at this point.
After half a cup, tongue is getting back to normal, and I can tell you that no it did not. Maybe it's steep time and not temperature that's important here? What I've got here tastes mainly just like a standard black with some undetermined flavouring in it. Super-boring.
On the second half of the pot, it's gained a bit of a bite of over-steepedness. It's just a bit though and something that could be strawberry-y if you sort of squint has come out. Only... now there's no chocolate to be found. At all. Anywhere.
So now it's both this one and the sweet notes in the lapsang souchong. Why can't this stuff just be consistent? ('Because then it would be much less interesting', yeah, yeah, I know...)Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:51:15 -0500/teas/Valentines/105-valentines?post=31245
Tie Guan Yin from TeaSpringIt's been a while since I've had my beloved tie guan yin. *Jillian* even sent me the rest of hers so I could compare that to TeaSpring's but I haven't even got around to that yet. But last night when I came home from *Lexitus'* it had been snowing. Another five centimeters or so. Not a lot, but we've had snow on the ground non-stop since before christmas. And when I went inside and started looking at the news apparently at some point the police advised people to avoid unnecessary driving... Stop! Snowing! OMG!!!
This totally called for a fortifier, so I had a bag of something or other cheap before going to bed, and this morning I'm making it up to myself by having made me a nice pot of this stuff. This gorgous glorious 100 points worth stuff.
The first thought that struck me when I poured the first cup was about the colour. I thought, no wonder I liked the neon-coloured Sencha. I think I'm pre-programmed to like that. This one, after a three minute steep, had that exactly same colour too! Maybe a little paler. But definitely neon-green-ish. It would likely have changed though if I had given it a slightly longer steep, but I was a little impatient.
My impatience also means that the first cup has gone a bit weak. That soft, round grassy/butter-y flavour is still there. The sweetness of it is still there. It's just more fleeting and not as easy to find. Topping it up with a bit more from the pot that has steeped longer helps, but for another time I'll just have be more patient with it and let it have the usual five minutes. For me they just can't be spared it seems.Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:21:44 -0500/teas/Tie%20Guan%20Yin/8711-tie-guan-yin?post=31430
Gunpowder from UnknownACK! Argh! Ack! Erk! Argh!
Gunpowder + spearmint gum = spitty!
I made use of the random tea picker today and it suggested this generic gunpowder. Okay, that's a fair suggestion, I thought, given my foray into japanese greens. Let's see if I can spot a significant difference.
First of all the colour is way more yellow and non-radioactive. A deep, warm colour and not in the least bit toxic looking.
Smell has a prickly note. I've seen people who find this type of green a bit on the smoky side and I've never been able the get that. Maybe it's that prickly note they experience as smoky. I find it more sort of... I want to say citrus-y but that's not quite it. It's not fruity as such. Maybe there's a vague hint of smoke, but it's not smoky.
Tastewise, it's definitely different even if my tongue is still semi-paralysed by the unfortunate gum incident. It's not at all the green vegetables in this one. This is more abstract in flavour. It doesn't really taste that much of anything other than green tea. It's sweeter than the japanese and it's not as much an explosion of flavour. It's rounded and just calmly fills the mouth.
This probably makes no sense to anybody other than me...
Maybe if it hadn't been for the chewing gum, I could have been more specific. This, however, was not to be.Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:33:28 -0500/teas/Gunpowder/2312-gunpowder?post=31534
Rhubarb Green from Adagio TeasI was looking for a black tea, actually searching specifically for the bag with the Irish Breakfast from Adagio in it, when I fell over this one, also sent to me by TeaEqualsBliss. I don't know if this is actually a relatively common flavour for green teas or if it's another one of Adagio's whacky flavours. It's not one I can recall having seen before anyway.
It smells really nice! Sweet and fruity of rhubarb and also of strawberries. It's reminding me very much of the strawberry and rhubarb puddings of my early childhood, often served for dessert by my grandmother. I'm finding myself looking forward to this to an extreme degree. Based on the smell alone we are looking at something close to 80 points here!
Cross your fingers that I don't get disappointed, Steepsterites. I don't want to get disappointed in general, and I especially don't want to get disappointed by something that smells like this.
After steeping it smells very rhubarb-y! All the strawberry smell is gone here, but there is something else that smells like it could be almost lemon-y. An extremely sour lemon, mind, but still lemon-y. Hello, oxalic acid! My teeth are already a little bit concerned about the coming acid assault. But all is not perfect here. It _has_ gained a semi-synthetic smelling sweetness too. I think it was the one I identified as strawberry earlier.
It's surprisingly sweet in flavour. The rhubarb flavour isn't overwhelming, but clearly recognisable. Underneath that it's a citrus-y green tea. Somewhat water-y and weak, though. All Adagio say is that the base is a chinese green, but I should like to know which one. I brewed it like I normally do all my greens, but it tastes a bit like I should have used more leaf.
I do wish it had been stronger than this. I'll still give it around 80-ish points, but if it had been stronger then I would definitely have given it more. And it's definitely also a flavour that I would be interested in trying from another brand if possible.
I find myself now desperately wanting that pudding that my grandmother used to serve...Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:40:59 -0500/teas/Rhubarb%20Green/234-rhubarb-green?post=31548
Chocolate Puerh from Numi Organic TeaMy last bag. I'm having it for dessert tonight and I'm trying to make it stretch to my entire little teapot rather than just a cup. Hopefully it won't be too thin. Nothing wrong with the aroma though, so I'm feeling confident.
Mmmmm. Nom.Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:59:31 -0500/teas/Chocolate%20Puerh/2891-chocolate-puerh?post=31568
Bi Luo Chun from TeaSpringThis is actually the second steeping of this one. Tonight it's my trying to ground myself again tea. I need it because I'm presently in a foul mood and have been fuming over an issue all weekend. It doesn't even help that I just submitted my tax deductables and I'm expecting a refund. It helped a little, but I'm still pretty annoyed.
This is one of my first ever green teas. I think it was this one or gunpowder that was my debut, not counting bagged cheap ones. It has really cute twisty spirally leaves and I have a soft spot for it because of this.
These spirally leaves, however, are tightly twisted and they interlock with each other, so that when you take a spoonful of leaves out of the pot you have to pay attention because chances are there are more leaves on your spoon than you were counting on. It's so easy to use too much leaf here.
After having been -accu- -aqua- -acqaui- getting to know Sencha lately, I was actually struck by a surprising initial thought in this one. It didn't remind me that much of Sencha as I drank it, but the initial sip where I wasn't paying too much attention had the same green vegetable-y flavour to it. It was just for a moment and then it turned back into something else. Being in the mood I was in at the time, I can't actually tell you what it was that changed, but it just did.
Second steep is very sweet. Not really much else in the way of flavour notes, but this is good enough for me. I'll enjoy the rest of it this evening.
But yeah, I'm still pretty irritated. My presence might be scarce for a while. I feel the need to hide and hibernate and let the irritation burn out, so I may or may not be around, but I'm still reachable by PM or email. See you around, Steepsterites.Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:45:12 -0500/teas/Bi%20Luo%20Chun/8710-bi-luo-chun?post=31702
Tie Guan Yin from TeaSpringGood evening, Steepsterites.
Yeah, hi. It's me. I aten't ded. At this point in the post I rambled on for a handful of lines and then decided it was a load of rubbish so I deleted it again. Let's just say I'm just dipping my toes cautiously in the Steepster pool again here because I started missing a lot of people. Also, I received a gift from the wonderful *Auggy* with samples of some of her favourite smoky teas, some of which I have already tried. Don't worry though (or worry, depending on how you feel about backlogging) I've taken notes on them and some other ones.
But for now, I think a come-back tea ought to be a well-known one. And old favourite. One that will allow you to reflect on the situation rather than the tea itself. One that calms and soothes. Comforting, yet with a refreshing taste.
And this one seemed to fit.
I'm sorry the entire post turned out to be a rambling pile of woe-ness. I tried really hard to avoid it, I swear. I'll just take my cup to bed and read some Asterix or something.
Feel free to go back to your regularly scheduled dashboards now. Nothing to see here.Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:35:29 -0400/teas/Tie%20Guan%20Yin/8711-tie-guan-yin?post=32547
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringOdd.
Like... _Odd!!!_
I'm getting a very strong smoky note in this one tonight. Like, not just strong flavour, but proper smoke. I did use this cup for Lapsang Souchong last night, but I rinsed it out and I never had trouble with flavour bleed like this before, ever. It should not be possible that this is merely contamination.
How very very odd!
Last time I logged this I was all about the fruity and slightly floral notes. Well, fruity is a bit of a stretch in this one and floral is just completely out of the question.
How did this _happen?_
It's possible it oversteeped just a bit. Apparently this turns smoky (and somewhat astringent) with a longer steep. Interesting. I'll even give it a few more points, because while the milder incarnation of it was nice enough, I definitely like this stronger version better.Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:05:09 -0400/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=32668
Irish Breakfast from Adagio TeasI made a pot of this to drink while I started reading _The Historian_ by Elizabeth Kostova. I had maybe one or two sips and thought, 'mmmmmm.... tea!' before I forgot about it and only remembered it four chapters later when it had of course gone ice cold.
Waste of tea, but awesome book!
I can't remember who it was that I saw mentioning having liked it (*JacquelineM,* was it you?) or on whose recommendation they had read it, but whoever you both are, THANK YOU!Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:53:56 -0400/teas/Irish%20Breakfast/53-irish-breakfast?post=32854
Russian Blend from SamovarThanks to *Auggy,* I can have my Samovar debut! This post is actually part backlog and part recent because I've got two different sessions and two different preparation methods in it.
_Western Style_
This is the backlogged bit. I started out making this one western style, primarily because at the time I had forgotten that this was the one to try with jam and milk in it. I didn't realise that until afterwards.
The dry leaves smell strongly of ashes. Being a smoky tea lover, this is to me a good thing. (Ironically though, I abhor cigarette smoke...). Once brewed up, it still smelled smoky but also with a creamy sweet note to it.
The taste, however, was not as smoky as I had expected. It did have smoke, but it was still quite smooth. There was a sweet note too, which originally I thought of as 'the absence of honey'. Once I tasted a bit more thoroughly, concentrating on it, I decided that at first it was a reminder of fruit, but then developed in the mouth and turned sort of darker. Samovar's description mentioned apricots, but I couldn't really find any properly apricot-y apricots, but I could agree that the initial fruityness of the sweet note could very well be apricots. It added a slight tartness to the smoke sort of.
When it cooled off a bit, I was surprised to find it turning almost flowery. I don't really understand how you can have flowers and smoke at the same time, but evidently you can. It defies logic, but it works.
I decided that based on this session I would give it about 85-90 points, and the next time I would do it the russian way. Jam and all.
_Russian Style_
This is actually quite similar to the turkish brewing method that I have posted about before, in that you first brew a concentrate and then dilute and sweeten it to taste. The difference here is just the additives used. In Turkey they use only sugar. In Russia apparently jam and milk is popular.
There wasn't any description on how exactly to make the concentrate (or 'zavarka') so I decided to just use my normal amount of leaves and half the amount of water with a long, about 13 minutes steep. Of course, I'm curious about such things, so I had to taste the zavarka by itself before continuing. It was indeed very smoky, but not really as super-strong and astringent as Samovar's instructions said it should be. So it probably should have been stronger. That's just a shame, though, because I was given this sample as a gift and therefore have limited amounts of leaves available. I didn't want to use them all up for the sake of this one cup.
I diluted it half zavarka/half water, added a splash of milk and a large teaspoon of raspberry marmalade. Samovar said to use strawberry jam, but I didn't have any and when I asked *Auggy,* she thought that raspberry marmalade should work just as well.
I can taste three things here. Milk, smoke and raspberries. It's a bit like eating a raspberry cream cake in a smoke-filled room, actually. I can definitely see why they would call this a meal in itself because it almost is. It's more smoky this way than when brewed western style, I assume because of the zavarka. The raspberries give a funny tart sort of flavour too that reminds me of hibiscus. I understand now why hibiscus is so often used to imitate berries. The difference here is, though, that his actually tastes nice. Whereas hibiscus is quite simply, in a word, undrinkable.
I would be hard pressed indeed to say which of these two styles I preferered. The western style gives a very good cup and it's more than good enough for everyday use. The russian style seems more luxurious. To be reserved for special occasions, like when you want to be a little extra good to yourself or when you need a little extra comfort.
Or a celebration. It kind of tastes a little bit of birthday.
Having had both the western and the russian style, I'm ending up at a solid 90 points.Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:58:03 -0400/teas/Russian%20Blend/7491-russian-blend?post=32863
Hazelnut from Adagio TeasDead tin.
For dessert tonight with plenty of milk in it. A little too much milk, actually, if I'm to be honest, but it's still quite nice. It gives a good clue of what it would have been like with a little less milk, but a milk with a slightly higher fat content.
Or is that just me being unhappy about the supermarket not having my usual brand of milk, so I had to get a different one? And they didn't have any cartons left of the fat content level that I usually drink? Wrong milk all round. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:57:39 -0400/teas/Hazelnut/87-hazelnut?post=32892
Lapsang Souchong from Golden Moon TeaHow about a backlog? The good thing about backlog notes is I can make a post even when I'm not actually having any tea. (No specific reason, just drinking something else at the moment) The bad thing is I don't really want to write up the ones that I didn't like, so there's a certain lack of balance in that document...
My Golden Moon debut and the second one of Auggy's gift teas I've tried! When Auggy told me about what she would like to gift me with, she mentioned that this Lapsang Souchong has a surprisingly sweet flavour for an LS. It reminded me a bit of that sweet phantom note in A. C. Perch's Lapsang that try as I might, I can't find again.
The leaves smell very smoky, and the actual tea is smoky too. Quite smoky, in fact I'd say. Smoke is just not the first note I'm finding.
At first there is something way more substantial. Something solid. It's (work with me here, Steepsterites) a bit like pu-erh, only without the earthyness. Without the cowstableness. I mean, it doesn't _taste_ like pu-erhs at all, it just sort of creates the same flavour intensity sensations.
Then, after that, YES!!! There it is! Sweetness. That same sort of sweet note that has disappeared from my ACP Lapsang. Smoky smoke is smoky, but underneath it the sweetness lies. I can only describe it as kind of thick. It's not a specific flavour other than 'something sweet', but it tastes like something that would come in globs, not in puffs or powders.
There is also a small note of some kind of leaf-y something. It's not grassy or fruity or any other word that suggests right-off-plant-ness, nor is it an earthy stored note like pu-erh. It's in between. Like dried flowers (except it's not a flowery flavour either) or leaves pressed between the pages of a heavy book
I seem to be using a lot of energy describing what this tea _isn't_ and very little energy on what it actually _is_. What it _is_ is very nice indeed. I just wish I could recreate this same sweetness in my ACP lapsang.
All in all, I'm totally getting the whole camel driver vibe here.Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:43:23 -0400/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/4401-lapsang-souchong?post=33044
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringAnd the oddness continues. Seriously there are strange things afoot in this tin!
I shall tell you why.
If you go check my other two posts about this one you will find the first one in january where I said that it was surprisingly fruity and sweet for a black tea, that it had a raisin-y note, and that if I hadn't known otherwise I would have believed it to be a flavoured black.
The second post was the other day where most likely due to a slight over-steep it had turned totally smoky, and I couldn't understand how that had happened, but I liked the tea better for it and gave it a few more points, from 76 to 80 if memory serves me right.
Then this morning I made a little pot for my travel mug. I wanted some of that smoke. And what did I get? Well, certainly not anything remotely smoky! Instead there was that distinct cardboard-y note that you'll find in Assams. It was still a strong cup and I drank it with unusual haste, but it was still the third of three completely different cups.
And it _is_ the same tin. I've checked.
I can't for the life of me understand what's going on here. Can tea-leaves have multiple personality disorder?
No matter what though, I can't ignore the impulse give it some more points again.
I wonder what it will taste like tomorrow?Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:54:55 -0400/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=33147
Assam Deluxe FTGFOP from A C Perch'sGoodmorning Steepsterites.
_sigh_
I have NOTHING to DRINK!!!
I briefly considered trying one of the remaining *Auggy*-teas, but eventually came to the conclusion that early morning boredom wasn't really the right circumstance for that. Considering how quickly the cardboard-y note incarnation of the Tan Yang Te Ji vanished yesterday morning, I eventually decided to let myself be inspired by that and make some real Assam.
Ouch, hot!
Yes, it's definitely reminding me of yesterday morning. A bit stronger perhaps but very similar.
I checked that I took the right tin yesterday.
But can we ever really be _completely_ certain?
Unrelatedly, my TTB participants can look here (http://iarnvidia.livejournal.com/) for the first part of a couple of posts about the box. The second part should be up soonishly, I hope. (Yes, I know it was posted ages ago, but I thought it would be used for someone else so I didn't tell)
Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:28:09 -0400/teas/Assam%20Deluxe%20FTGFOP/8117-assam-deluxe-ftgfop?post=33238
Carävan from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaSat, 20 Mar 2010 16:05:48 -0400/teas/Car%C3%A4van/8408-caravan?post=33286
Carävan from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaSince Steepster is featuring Andrews & Dunham today, I thought maybe it was time for yet another debut for me. Because their Caravan is the third of the smokies that *Auggy* shared with me. I can't actually remember what anybody has said about this one, which makes it a brand new experience for me. I'm expecting something Russian Caravan-ish.
Lovely smoky smell, but there is also a _very_ sweet note here. Like syrup-y sweet. And something vaguely spicy.
As for the taste, OMG!
Oh! Em! Gee! o.O
So smoky! So sweet! SO GOOD!
It's primarily sweet, as if it had sugar in it, and then the smoke is just rounding it off and preventing it from being too sweet. This is like SO seriously good. I'm all...
Excuse me, Steepsterites. I can't finish this post. This tea and me, we would like to spend some time alone...
Thank you *Auggy!!!* (Again)
*ETA:* If I give it a double-lenght steep, I can get two good steeps out of these leaves. A bit thinner the second time around, but definitely still very nice. Little bit of cane sugar added to enhance the sweetness.
I do seem to have contracted a case of the mini-burps which is quite annoying, but hopefully not tea related... Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:05:54 -0400/teas/Car%C3%A4van/8408-caravan?post=33288
Scarlet Sable from SamovarI trust *Auggy.* If she says, as a fellow disliker of rooibos, that this is a good smoky, then I believe her.
Even if it has what looks like a LOT of rooibos in it.
I was a bit apprehensive of this one, going around poking the tin cautiously for a while now. It's the last one of the *Auggy*-smokies, so there's no way to postpone it any longer.
The dry leaves smell more woody and Earl Grey-y than I had expected. Spicy too. Pepper-y. I reminded of cayenne and such like. (I trust *Auggy*)
There is a sweet, honey-y smell from the cup when I pour, and when I smell a bit closer, there the smoke is. It's not a very permeating note in the aroma, but it's there. In combination with the rooibos it turns into a funny citrus-y note, which brings my mind back to the Earl Grey-ness of the dry leaves.
I trust *Auggy.*
Okay, here goes. This is me about to have rooibos blend. (This is me post-poning the moment, actually). I have my sugar dispenser within reach, just in case I need to drown out some of the rooibos. Okay. Insert trusting *Auggy* mantra here. Right. _takes deep breath and gathers courage_
Okay, this is odd.
_sips again_
This is unmistakably rooibos. _sips_ But it sort of doesn't taste entirely like rooibos. The smoke is doing some weird things to it. That special sweet/spicy/sour note of regular rooibos is very underplayed here, barely there at all, but it tastes a bit like there ought to be a handful of freshly cut wood chips in there.
It's supposed to have a lychee note too. I'm in the fortunate position that I actually know what lychees taste like (they're very yummy) so I know which flavour to search for. And it is indeed there. A bit woodier than the real fruit, but it's there loud and clear on the swallow and to some degree in the aftertaste.
The smoke itself, because the smoke is what's important here, is not really very obvious when you drink this. Mostly I'm just sitting here considering what an odd general flavour it has, and then the smoke comes in as a sort of after thought. If it hadn't been for the smoke, however, I'm really not sure I could have made myself finish the cup.
With the smoke it is a very nice cup indeed, but it's not one I couldn't live without. (Unlike that Andrews & Dunham Caravan... What's to become of me now?) Of these four that *Auggy* shared with me, I would put this one as my least favourite. Which isn't really saying much considering that I'm still giving it so many points.
My trust in *Auggy* suffered no damage on account of this tea, even if I was quite apprehensive about it at first.
What a strange and complicated tea.Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:54:47 -0400/teas/Scarlet%20Sable/6317-scarlet-sable?post=33341
Special Aged Pu Erh (EC06) from Nothing But TeaSmokies and pu-erhs are for me of the same sort of 'flavour family', if you get what I mean. So now that I ran out of *Auggy* smokies to try, I had the choice of going back to the wide selection *TeaEqualsBliss* provided me with or the education in japanese greens from *EvaPeva*. I chose to go back to the sampler sets from Nothing But Tea, because there are a few of them that I really want to buy and I have told myself that I'm not allowed to do this until I've gone through the samplers. In my small pot, I can get two sessions out of each sampler and I've also imposed the rule on myself that I'm not allowed to use the second serving until I've used the first serving of all the samples in a set. No, it makes absolutely no sense, but that's OCD for you.
It's been a while since I've been in these boxes and I haven't really been in much of an oolong mood recently. I can't really remember much of what I thought of the pu-erhs I've tried. I remember not being impressed with the green one, I remember really liking the orange flavoured one and I remember having fallen for the imperial one. Supply of the latter, iirc, being limited. Apart from that, I'm lost. No clue about any characteristics apart from the cowstableyness that is for me the definition of pu-erh. So no help there.
I'm brewing western style because quite frankly I don't have the patience to sit here and mess with a million ultra short steeps. I've wasted most of the day already giving myself blood pressure problems over SimCity 2000, so the LAST thing I need right now is something that requires attention and thought process.
The colour looks great when I'm pouring the cup. It has that shade of coppery brown that looks _just_ right. The aroma is sweet and earthy, and so closely related are pu-erhs and smokies for me that I was suprised to find that it _didn't_ have a smoky note.
Oh, but this is very nice indeed! It has a fresh sort of happy flavour. Earthy, hidden and slightly dusty, but it's a happy flavour. This tea is saying, "I am finished! I am ripe and mature! Look out world, because here I come!" And then it bounces off in search of something fun to do.
I wish I had a better recollection of what the Imperial pu-erh was like, because I don't really know actually if I like this one better or not or if it's the same. I will definitely want to purchase one of them. Time will tell which one it'll end up being. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:29:23 -0400/teas/Special%20Aged%20Pu%20Erh%20(EC06)/3370-special-aged-pu-erh-ec06?post=33360
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringI have absolutely definitely taken this tin this time. I have checked the tin in my hand several times and not put it down between then and scooping out my leaf dosage.
Interesting to see which sort of flavour it'll have this time. Scent is sweet, fruity and somewhat astringent. Assam-y, although the sweetness isn't so much a honey note as it is in Assams. There's a hint there of something that could be slightly smoky, but on aroma alone I can't really tell if it's just an aspect of the astringency.
Now for the interesting bit. Are you ready Steepsterites? Has anybody started a pool on this? Will it be fruity? Will it be smoky? Will it be an Assam impersonator? Last chance to lay down your bets!
And the tea is.....
_drum roll_
Hmm... What is it, actually?
If anybody did start a pool on this, then I'd say you have all won. It's sort of fruity, with a touch of Assam-y cardboard and a round of smoke. I'm beginning to think that it has been like this all along, but I have discovered these three things one at a time, and now that I'm aware that they're around, I'm getting the full picture. Like a sort of jigsaw tea.
It is a very nice cup indeed, this jigsaw tea, and I'll be sad when it runs out. Every time I have it I consider giving it a few more points. It seems to have been in limited supply because it's gone from Teaspring's website. They have one of a different grade still though. I just can never remember if special grade is better than refined grade or if it's the other way around...Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:17:58 -0400/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=33478
Golden Raisin Oolong *Limited* from 52teasAt first I let myself be inspired by *Madison's* Thai Chai to have the Coconut Cream Pie from 52teas, y'know, because of the coconut. So I went to get that out of the cupboard and ended up choosing this one instead. I'd forgotten I had this, and the discovery made me want this more than the other one today.
Apparently I've liked it before, judging from the rating I gave it. Can't remember what I thought of it though.
I'll tell you know though, that I can definitely taste some dark oolong here. One of those daaaaaark flavours. Borderline pu-erh notes. It even has a touch of that same coppery colour.
...This _is_ oolong, right?
Topped with plenty of raisin flavour (I still can't get over the fact that I like raisins now, apparently. Weird.) this is indeed a nice cup, so I think I agree with myself on the rating points.
I think the funny borderline pu-erh-y earthy flavour must stem from the fact that I'm used to and tend to prefer greener oolongs.Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:39:42 -0400/teas/Golden%20Raisin%20Oolong%20*Limited*/7044-golden-raisin-oolong-star-limited-star?post=33623
Tie Kuan Yin (OC01) from Nothing But TeaIt's been a while since I've been in a proper oolong mood. I had oolong yesterday, but that wasn't a green one. I would say, though, that it was probably that one that gave me a push back to oolong territory and made me look in the NBT oolong sampler box. Most of the ones I have left are regional oolongs and a couple of more specific types. I wanted a green one, and I couldn't be sure about the regional oolongs and I couldn't remember about the chinese types which was green and which wasn't, and rather importantly, I couldn't be bothered to go look it up. Also didn't really have time to do so because the water was already close to boiling.
So I went with the safe choice. It's not exactly a new tea for me at all, but it was the only one I could be certain was a green oolong.
First impression wasn't greath, though. I poured a few of the leaves out in my hand before putting them into the pot, and while they did have that pellet-y rolled up shape, they seemed small in size. Almost broken. TeaSpring's TGY has the best leaves of the TGYs I've seen so far. They are large and with a clear deep green colour. These ones seemed to have a withered yellow tint to them.
There's nothing wrong with the colour of the tea after steeping. It's a pale golden yellow and completely transparent. The only thing here that could be even loosely described as murkiness is my own fingerprints on the glass cup. And that totally doesn't count.
The aroma is barely worth mentioning. What is there is sweet and vegetal as it should be. There is just so very little of it. I really had to sit here and search for it and that's just not right.
I'm sorry to say that the flavour here is as pale as the aroma. I'm brewing this by guesstimation like I usually do, so it's not impossible that someone with the patience for it can get more out of it than I can by tweaking some parameters. It has all the right flavour notes here, sweetness, grassyness with a touch of nuttyness and a slightly acidic aftertaste. It's just sort of muted a bit.
After the cup has been allowed to sit and develop for a bit, this improves considerably. It's not inconceivable that sometimes a cup of tea has to ripen a bit and that this is one of those times.The flavour as such doesn't change. The same notes in the same combinations and the same proportions. It's just more intensive now and I'm feeling a lot more happy with this tea. I was concerned that such a pale flavour wouldn't really hold up to re-steeps, but now I don't think that'll be a problem.
I still don't think I can really justify rating higher than this, though. At least not at this point. Perhaps later.Wed, 24 Mar 2010 06:06:11 -0400/teas/Tie%20Kuan%20Yin%20(OC01)/8981-tie-kuan-yin-oc01?post=33703
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch'sWait a minute...
Is that...?
Can it really be...?
YES!!! IT'S THE ELUSIVE SWEET NOTE! I'M NOT CRAZY!
_confetti_Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:29:43 -0400/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=33740
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringI'm so pleased that *Auggy* liked this one as much as she did! I knew I was right about it having a strong smoky note, even if by my usual seat-of-the-pants western brewing of standard amount of leaves + standard amount of water for until-either-forgotten-or-impatient brewing style, it was a bit difficult to reproduce.
*Auggy* went by the recommendations on TeaSpring's website so I felt inspired to do the same. And discovered that this meant twice my usual amount of leaves in half my usual amount of water. Oh dear me. The tin only have enough left for half a pot by my usual sloppy brewing style now. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Whatever shall I do??? (Order more. Right. Adding Tan Yang Jing Zhi to shopping list and hope desperately that that leaf grade is as good as this one. If not, I think I'll cry)
Anyway, I'm definitely finding that when I brew it this way I get all those different layers I found at the same time instead of one overpowering the others. Interesting. I'm not as good at identifying each note as accurately as some you other people are, but if I drink this and compare it to *Auggy's* post, then I'm finding I pretty much agree completely with everything there. Except the extreme amounts of cocoa notes in the aroma. I'd caught that one by myself.
It does win by being brewed properly like this, but the amount of leaves used this way is a bit of a hold-back for me. I'm too damn stingy for brewing like that, especially with this one! I mean money ain't growing on trees, Steepsterites! Unless, apparently, you are growing this tea. $10.50 for 50 g. And the leaf grade that they have left now is $17.60 for 50 g. Just saying.Sat, 27 Mar 2010 04:53:27 -0400/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=34140
Erdbeer-Zauber, magenmild from Tea-Friends.de*Lexitus* was in Germany recently and brought this stuff home for me. I asked for something fruity, and fruity was exactly what I got. This stuff is nothing, really, but dried fruit. Apples, strawberries, pineapple, papaya and carrot pieces, along with a couple of things I had to look up, namely elderberries and beetroot.
Beet.
Root.
My german is rudimentary at absolutely best, but I was pretty sure that I had that one right. I was just kind of hoping that I was wrong.
It doesn't have hibiscus in it. It doesn't say so in the ingredients and I can't spot any in the actual... can't really say leaves.... mix either.
But it does have a very very very bright red colour. Like hibiscus-red. It smells mainly like a hot mix of apple and strawberry juice.
It doesn't, thankfully, have any hibiscus flavour, so now I know they didn't try to hide some in there. I can usually pick up that metallic flavour of -blood- hibiscus even in small amounts, so I'm feeling much safer now. I'm not surprised beetroot would produce such a colour (if you are peeling both potatoes and beetroot, do the potatoes first and the beetroots after, unless you want funny coloured potatoes. Just saying)
Not a lot of flavour as such actually, which surprises me because the dry mix has a very LARGE aroma. The pineapple especially is really tearing at the nostrils.
I can find the apple, mostly. The strawberry needs a little searching for, but it's also there. A dash of pineapple is there too with the elderberries. The papaya and the carrot doesn't seem to have much of a presence and I suspect the beetroot is mainly there for the colour.
On the whole it's a wee bit on the tart side, which for me is a bit odd, because I generally prefer the more sour apple sorts. I'm sure I'll finish off the bag that the englishman bought for me easily enough, but I'm not going to be heartbroken when it's gone.
I might try mixing it in with some of the black tea my Turkish colleague gave me. I never seem to get around to doing that turkish tea brewing and I didn't really find them over the top wonderful in a western style brewing. A small amount of this stuff mixed in should be able to give almost anything a bit of a lift.
All in all, not bad.
CHAPTER 2 (*Lexitus* said I should call it that, the mocking ... thing!)
I'm on steep 1½ now. My first cup was only about half the contents of the little pot I made, so I still had the other half left. I dumped a spoonful of the turkish leaves into the pot and topped it off with boiling water.
The result is a darker red and with the addition of some real tea, it's actually quite nice. There's a very sweet sugary note suddenly that wasn't there before. It tastes like the strawberry is really brought to the front of the flavour this way.
It's possible that I didn't steep it long enough the first time around, but for me it just seemed a bit flighty and lacking without the solid base of tea underneath it. It's got some support now and becomes more of what I had initially expected of it.
I'll give it a nudge upwards from 64 points, and will likely be having it this way in the future.Sat, 27 Mar 2010 11:37:01 -0400/teas/Erdbeer-Zauber,%20magenmild/11186-erdbeer-zauber-magenmild?post=34152
Green Pu Erh Toucha (EC23) from Nothing But TeaThe last untried tea from the pu-erh sampler. I wasn't too impressed with the loose green pu-erh, so really I'm just hoping that by being pressed into touchas this will be somehow different and better.
The smell when I poured it into the cup wasn't really too assuring. Sweet and extremely butter-y. Little bit salty too. In the cup where the liquid is at rest, there is the well-known pu-erh smell too, but at this point I still have the vast amounts of melted butter fresh in my memory and it comes across as too little too late.
This is salty. It reminds me a bit of TeaSpring's Long Jing, which I don't think I've actually posted about yet. I think I've got notes for that one in my Backlog Later files. I didn't care much for that one either, as I recall, due to the amounts of salted butter notes in it. I wonder if this stuff might be based on Long Jing, or a Long Jing type tea.
I can pick up a little of the characteristic pu-erh earthiness, but again, it's really just too little too late.
I have a strong suspicion that whoever invented this type of tea did not have the likes of me in mind at the time. I can drink this, but I'd sort of prefer not to. I'll probably finish off the samples just to be rid of them because I don't like throwing stuff out unless I really seriously didn't like it, but it's definitely not something I'd purchase another time.
Give me a proper ordinary pu-erh anytime.Sun, 28 Mar 2010 02:57:55 -0400/teas/Green%20Pu%20Erh%20Toucha%20(EC23)/8971-green-pu-erh-toucha-ec23?post=34233
Puerh Special Grade from TeaSourceOh yes, this is more like it. This another of the teas that I got from *EvaPeva*.
After a 30 seconds steep this is already almost as black as coffee and the aroma is all full of earthy goodness.
Ouch, bit too hot, though.
Compared to that awful green stuff, this is the nectar of the gods. On it's own, though, I'm not really getting anything out of this first steep other than standard pu-erh. It does taste like there might be a lot of steeps in it. The sort of leaves that you could keep using all day without any noteworthy change in flavour or intensity.Sun, 28 Mar 2010 04:09:04 -0400/teas/Puerh%20Special%20Grade/10317-puerh-special-grade?post=34234
Turkish Tea from UnknownOkay, this is not at all what I wanted. What I wanted was that Samovar from Kusmi that *~Lauren* posted about. Unfortunately, I was not in luck there. I checked the places on my way home from work that I knew carries Kusmi, but none of them had the Samovar.
After a little indecision, I decided instead eventually on some of this stuff that I got from my turkish colleague and some of the german fruit potpourri that *Lexitus* bought for me in Germany. Two parts tea, one part fruity mix.
When I tried this combination before it was the other way around, but this way feels more logical to me, with more tea than fruit.
I've steeped it a little too long for this ordinary western brewing style and the tea is warning me to not do it again.
Apart from that, it really is a win-win situation. The black tea is made more interesting without being brewed turkish style, and the fruit mix is kept from being too... fruity. Or something.Tue, 30 Mar 2010 11:51:27 -0400/teas/Turkish%20Tea/2322-turkish-tea?post=34503
Carävan from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaThe start of my Easter holiday.
Payday.
Having a minimum amount of bills in april.
*Lexitus* informing me that the AC Perch's order has arrived, and I can get my tea on friday.
Caravan in my pot.
Plenty of things to celebrate.
OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:32:27 -0400/teas/Car%C3%A4van/8408-caravan?post=34609
Irish Breakfast - Extra Fancy from Red Leaf TeaYou are not seeing this post. This post does not exist because I am totally working on writing and totally not posting on Steepster. If you can see this post, you need to get your eyes checked. Cause it ain't here.
That said, *TeaEqualsBliss* sent me a sample of this when we swapped earlier and I can't really remember why I rated it so low, but I gather that I rated it that way in comparison to the Adagio IB which I can't currently remember what tastes like, so I'm not going to tamper with the rating.
I used 50% more leaf for this pot because I thought I could finish the sample off that way. Turns out the sample was larger than I had expected and now I've only got an estimated amount of leaf left for half a pot. By the time I discovered that, though, it was of course too late to do anything about it.
The tea actually carries the extra strength quite nicely. I can't tell in the flavour that it's stronger than usual, and reading my previous comment on it, I still completely agree with myself.
So evidently what we've got here is a pretty forgiving blend, which kind of surprises me a little considering that it must surely have Assam in it, and in my experience you can call the Indian blacks many things, but 'forgiving' generally isn't one of them. It's possible that the Assam aspect is a bit more astringent this way, but it's not something that really mars the flavour on the whole.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the Irish Morning Blend from A C Perch's hold up to this and to Adagio's equivalent.
Back to work (HA!) for me, and remember, this post does not exist, it isn't here and I never wrote it.Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:34:45 -0400/teas/Irish%20Breakfast%20-%20Extra%20Fancy/8193-irish-breakfast-extra-fancy?post=34650
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch'sIt would appear that overnight I've gone off smokies completely.
In the future I'll only drink herbal infusions. Preferably with tons of hibiscus in it.
;)Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:34:07 -0400/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=34726
Long Jing from TeaSpringThu, 01 Apr 2010 07:38:32 -0400/teas/Long%20Jing/6863-long-jing?post=34732
Long Jing from TeaSpring*JacquelineM* actually inspired me this morning, so after finishing the morning pot of Lapsang Souchong, I switched to this.
I've never really managed to get the hang of Dragonwell before and I've never really been able to agree with myself on whether or not I like it much. So I was in a weird situation where I had a sort of semi-craving for something that I wasn't really sure I liked.
What to do, what to do?
It's not really practical to brew half pots at the time, because I have a tendency to forget that I'm only supposed to fill it half up with water and end up with a totally weakling cup of tea. I don't really have the brain capacity to do it that way when I know I'll be steeping it several times. If it's just the one or two times, it can be done, but more than that and chances are it'll go wrong at _least_ once.
Cue the little yellow gaiwan that I hardly ever use, because I always spill and/or burn myself. I was feeling brave though, so I brewed in that and carefully decanted after steeping into another little cup. That gave me half a very small cup on each steep which isn't so much that I'll give up on the questionable flavour or get too much of it, and it allows me to do a multitude of steeps.
So I've been drinking Dragonwell for oh about... let's see... hmm... about four hours or so. I haven't got the faintest idea of which steep I'm currently having, the counting got messed up, but *JacquelineM* totally nailed the primary flavour note when she called it asparagus-y. It's like with *Takgoti* and the walnut note in the Pai Mu Tan. I _knew_ it was a well-known clear flavour, very easy to pick up on. I just couldn't work out what it _was_.
At this point though, on Steep X, the asparagus-y-ness has diminished quite a lot. It's not really a flavour that tries to invade and conquer, it's just sort of there. Much more toned down. The flavour has sort of deepened, if you know what I mean. It's not as bright and bouncy anymore. It has calmed down and turned darker. Like the difference between brand new leaves on trees at the beginning of spring, and leaves that has been on the tree for half a summer already.
I'm liking these 'older' steeps better than the first ones, definitely, so it seems like with this one the gaiwan is the way to go.
As I said, I lost count of what number steep this is, but to give you an idea of how far I've approximately come, I've become quite good at transferring from gaiwan to cup. I don't spill _every_ time anymore. And I haven't burned myself either.
It's still not a tea that I really see myself drinking a lot of though, so I'll leave the rating where it is and let first impressions count for this one.Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:14:05 -0400/teas/Long%20Jing/6863-long-jing?post=34755
Assam Deluxe FTGFOP from A C Perch'sThu, 01 Apr 2010 16:19:04 -0400/teas/Assam%20Deluxe%20FTGFOP/8117-assam-deluxe-ftgfop?post=34794
Lapsang Souchong from Golden Moon TeaI don't think I really fooled anybody with my post yesterday... As *Lena* pointed out, I should probably have left out the hibiscus bit.
But I can assure you all that my infatuation with smokies is unchanged and there is no force on the planet that could make me give them up.
(Which is kind of odd, really, considering my strong dislike for tobacco smoke)
Had a cup of this one this morning and it was yummy.Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:30:35 -0400/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/4401-lapsang-souchong?post=34850
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sOh *Rickyyyyyyyyyy!* Guess what I've gooooot!
I made a little pot of this, drank it and resteeped. And angels started singing.
Oh berry! Oh oolong! Oh welcome back in my cupboard.Sat, 03 Apr 2010 02:16:47 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=34951
Irish Morning Tea from A C Perch'sOkay, I have re-familiarised myself with the beloved raspberry oolong. I can't believe how long I've gone without it. Now for the second reason for my latest ACP purchase (the third being dangerously low levels of Lapsang Souchong left)
What we've got here is a blend of Assam and Travancore, the latter of which is one of those areas that I can never remember exactly where is. Luckily I have literature and atlasses at my disposal, so it was easy enough to figure out. South India for those who suffer from geography deficiency like me.
So far of the Irish Breakfast blends I've tried, I have found Adagio's offering suited me best. Granted I haven't yet had that many, but this is the way things stand at the moment. I'm a big fan of A C Perch's as many of you have likely figured out by now, so I have great hopes that their morning tea can, if not beat Adagio's, then at least be equally as good.
The leaves are quite small and dotted liberally with lovely pretty golden bits, just like my Assam is. Seeing as the leaves are so small though, I will have to play with dosage a bit with this one. My usual dosage in this size pot has turned out to be a wee bit on the strong side for me. The aroma of the dry leaves is absolutely lovely. Assam honey-y sweetness all over the place and something that smells almost, but not quite, smoky. The bag it came in actually had a very smoky aroma hanging at it when I tried sniffing it through the wrapping, which surprised me a bit, because I wouldn't call this normally a smoky blend. Turns out it was just aroma from the lapsang souchong stuck to the outside of the bag as the leaves inside smell very differently.
After steeping, I have to admit I didn't consider paying that much attention to the aroma, and it's gone a bit too cold now to really tell. At this temperature, though, where it's good for drinking, it smells kind of smooth. Maybe even a bit milky. The actual aroma notes are too weak for me to register at this point. Not because the aroma as such is weak or non-existant, but more because I had an incident at work a few days ago, which involved me, a garbage bag with a hole in it, a bucket with a popped off lid and a few liters of formalin on the floor. To be cleaned up. By me. That's a few hundred brain cells I'll never see again. It was quite unpleasant, and I don't really think my nasal mucus membranes are completely recovered from all the formaldehyde fumes yet. It makes it a bit difficult to really tell what I'm smelling here.
Taste, though. As mentioned, I made it a little too strong for my liking, so next time I'll have to knock a little off the leaf dosage. The Assam is definitely there, but it feels a little more rounded off here. Relatively astringent, which may be caused by the extra amount of leaf. I tend to be pretty tolerant to astringency, but this cup is right on the border of my limit. I'm trying to look away from that, though.
There is indeed no smokyness in the tea at all. Only the cardboard-y Assam and that other fuller, rounder flavour that is more difficult to pin down. Like the Assam is only providing the frame around this other flavour. Like how a pretty picture is marred by an ugly frame but enhanced by a pretty frame, you know? It's rather abstract, I'll admit. Difficult to explain what I mean.
It's definitely a blend with a good punch, this. It reminds me of *Teaplz* and the pirate analogy a while ago. I wonder if I can say the tea has that ARRRR-factor. ;) I'm rating it like this for the time being and deeming it indeed a worthy rival of Adagio's IBB. As I experiment with the leaves, this rating may change.
Isn't it ironic, by the way, that while I'm sitting here posting about breakfast blends, my actual breakfast is standing on a plate in the kitchen, quite forgotten?
*ETA:* Very good on the resteep too. A bit smoother and still full of flavour.Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:39:02 -0400/teas/Irish%20Morning%20Tea/10092-irish-morning-tea?post=34952
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.Whoa! I've 'unfollowed' a LOT of Steepsterites today. Many of them people who have gone inactive or who had seemingly decided not to follow me. In many many cases both. But also some others. I just want to make it quite clear that there is nothing at all personal involved in the people I'm dropping. It's merely a case of trying to re-invent the way I use the site.
It's a lengthy and honestly rather tedious process (that I have, I admit, brought on myself by initially trying to follow literally everybody with one or two exceptions), but I'm down to 814 now. Not nearly done, but I've got two whole pages now of people I've decided to keep. And at this point I'm realising that instead of clicking and unfollowing people one by one, it might have been easier to just unfollow everybody and re-add the ones I wanted to keep instead. Bit late for that now, though, so we're plodding onwards.
For this purpose I of course need a good strong tea, preferably a smoky and one I know so well that I don't have to put a lot of thought into drinking it. Enter Black Powder. I have this at work every day. It's my work tea, which is also why I rarely have it at home anymore. It's perfect for work really and because it's smoky most people make this face o.O and I get to keep it for myself. (I do at the moment have one curious colleague though, but she's not yet finished gathering courage for it. I've told her she's welcome to dive into the tin/pot whenever she feels ready for it. I hope she'll like it. )
I'm actually on second steep now. The smoother, slightly sweeter, but still very smoky one. I can't remember if I've ever tried a third steep of it or what the result was if I did, but it would appear that today might very well be the day.
Seems I've generally had pretty good tea luck recently. Lots of yummy stuff.Sat, 03 Apr 2010 11:54:53 -0400/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=34967
Irish Morning Tea from A C Perch'sGoodmorning Steepsterites.
Yeah, I know it's nearly... nevermind. I've slept in, so it counts.
I have also successfully managed to whittle my following list down to an amazing 139! That's a far cry from the 1100 or so I think it was before. And at least 80% of them were inactive accounts. It feels good to have done a little house keeping and I think I've discovered (maybe) and easier for me way to use the site and still try to keep an eye on a lot of people with the recent posts page. It means an extra click and seeing some things twice and some things from people I had previously chosen not to follow for this or that reason, but I can deal with that. So again, to the few I have dropped that wasn't inactive, it's nothing personal against anybody, it's merely a change of tactics for me. I might readd some people again in the coming days
Anyway, I decided to go for the Irish Morning again this morning, and this time I tried to use a little less leaf. A C Perch's recommends steeping for six minutes which seems like an awfully long time for such a small leaf tea, but I think it's because they've based it on people who like to add milk. I happen to have milk at the moment, so I think we'll give that a try.
I've just poured a little bit first to try and tell what it's like without milk. My first thought was that it was extraordinarily sweet! I would never have guessed that from yesterday's dosage problems. Sweet yes, but not that much. As it cooled a bit, the sweetness went away, so that only really works when it's still very hot.
Adding a (good) bit of milk, I discover that either I'm not really a big fan of it with milk or my milk has a too high fat content (I tend to prefer 1,5%) to really work with this one. It tastes more like I've added cream, and that has not been a problem for me before in adding milk to any other tea. The tea itself seems a bit overpowered by this. So either it needs less milk than I added or it needs a thinner milk. Since I'm not about to change the type of milk I prefer for everything else or begin to buy two types of milk, I'll have to experiment with less milk.
Or even with no milk at all, which was better yet. Yesterday I got a great resteep, so we'll try that today as well. And definitely not add milk.
Rating sneakily sneaking upwards, a few points at a time.Sun, 04 Apr 2010 05:05:37 -0400/teas/Irish%20Morning%20Tea/10092-irish-morning-tea?post=35050
Organic Bolivian Green Tea from A C Perch'sFinally working out how to pour from the gaiwan into a cup without spilling all over the place has totally revolutionised the way I drink greens! I like greens, but they do require a certain mood to be taken in larger quantities. Even my small pot is a bit on the big side there. This way is so much easier!
Leaf-saving too, because I can get way more steeps out of a smaller amount of leaves. In a pot I rarely do more than two steeps of a green, three if I'm doing a lot, because after that I've just become bored and want something else.
So I've dived into my stash of semi-forgotten greens and found this one. Very nice. I'm reminded a bit of the Long Jing I had the other day and not just because I'm brewing this the same way, but also on the flavour. Hint of asparagus there but not nearly as bright and bouncy as in dragonwell.
Of course, just like the Long Jing, I have no clue about which number steep I'm on at the moment.
And to think I was on the verge of putting the gaiwan on the shelf as a nice little tea-related decorative item. Now I think I need some more of them. :D
*ETA:* Without spilling... Ahem. _wipes up_Sun, 04 Apr 2010 08:24:24 -0400/teas/Organic%20Bolivian%20Green%20Tea/8095-organic-bolivian-green-tea?post=35055
Chun Jian Zang from TeaSpringThe gaiwan method is good for more than just greens, I realised. And then I found this baby in the cupboard where it had been stuffed in a tin and forgotten about. I've had it before, brewed western style. I wasn't sure how much leaf to use, but I winged it and used too little. I can't remember much about other than I was a bit disappointed about how weak it seemed.
Trying it with the gaiwan today. Still not sure how much leaf to use and I couldn't really judge it on how much space it took up in the gaiwan, because it's so compressed. So I crossed my fingers and then added a little extra with an thought to the first weak attempt.
I did two pre-steeps of 30-45 seconds each.
First real steep was at 30 seconds It smells like a rainy day. Wet dogs. Also earthy, but a mild sort of earthy. Mostly though, I'm thinking umbrellas and wet dogs.
The flavour is sort of bitterness dissolved in rain water. I definitely used too much leaf here. It's almost coffee-y and this is NOT a good thing. It really tastes very much like tea that has been served from a pot usually used for coffee.
BLERGH!
It's very disappointing and I just can't drink this, so out it goes. Good thing about the gaiwan is that it's actually a very small amount of tea being discarded here.
Second steep was also 30 seconds and I've taken about half the leaf out of the gaiwan. That helped. The aroma remains the same, but it's smoothed out a bit. The taste is earthier and definitely better. But it's still a bit bitter, and not really...
Well, it's drinkable, okay?
I kind of wish I could try to recreate the traditional tibetan way of brewing here, but since danish grocery stores don't stock yak butter, that's not possible. Maybe I'll try an approximation with cow butter later on, but I'm not promising anything.
For the moment I'm not really terribly impressed, but it does have a certain win-factor in being a compressed pu-erh. Never had that before.Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:15:45 -0400/teas/Chun%20Jian%20Zang/8713-chun-jian-zang?post=35142
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringGoodbye Tan Yang.
You were a truly yummy tea with your cocoa notes and second steep smoky goodness. I'm in great misery and I'll miss you like an amputated limb. What's to become of me now?
'Scuse me.
~(WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*sniffle*WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!)~
*ETA:* Also, I just noticed I've been a Steepster member for a year today. But I'm still mourning the emptying of this tin, so I can't celebrate. Someone else do that for me, please.Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:53:54 -0400/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=35193
Samba tea from Den Lille TebutikI've been sitting here for HOURS trying to figure out what sort of tea I felt like having. I couldn't even agree with myself on a type, so I eventually took my troubles to the random pick thing that *Teaplz's* boyfriend came up with.
I'd call this a pretty unfavourable result. It's ancient and I didn't like it the first time. On the other hand if I do it now, I'll be rid of the sample for good and ever and won't have to actually throw it out, which is difficult for me.
My previous note for it mentioned something like a washing up soap aroma and not really being terribly impressed with it. Well, 21 points, I think that illustrates my level of non-impressedness pretty well, doesn't it?
I sat for a while and pondered this pick and eventually decided to go ahead and do it. I happen to be in possesion of some milk at the moment, so maybe that'll help matters a bit. Sugar too.
It's not really a fruity blend because it's so full of lemon grass and spices. And it's not really a spicy/chai-y blend either because it's so full of fruity stuff like pineapple and what have you. In my head it's a sort of in-between thing. Like... fruit chai or something like that.
Which frankly doens't sound all that inviting, does it? The washing up soap memory is coming back again here.
So after all this introductory chatter, how _does_ it actually fare when being introduced to additives?
The answer?
Not well. Not well at all.
As I mentioned the last time I posted about this five months ago, it's an ancient sample. It was ancient already then. It's unlikely that it _hasn't_ faded somewhat over time. Maybe when it was fresh I would have liked it better. Or maybe I'm just not a fan of lemon grass, period.
Okay, I gave it a fair shot. I even experimented with additives. Can I have something else now, please?Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:34:58 -0400/teas/Samba%20tea/5907-samba-tea?post=35339
Queen's Blend from A C Perch'sWed, 07 Apr 2010 02:18:21 -0400/teas/Queen's%20Blend/7934-queens-blend?post=35420
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.This is actually a backlog of what I had last night before sleeping. I made it with the gaiwan (really need more of those things!) and with cooler water than I have before. The reason for the c ooler water being that I forgot it and then couldn't be bothered to boil again.
I think the steeping time must have been shorter too. The only thing I know for sure, really, is that I used more leaf.
The result was VASTLY different to what I've had before. At least it seemed like it. It came as a bit of a surprise to me when I took the first sip, because that was just not how I remembered it at all. It wasn't as walnut-y and borderline astringent. It was sweet, a note of nuts but over-all insanely buttery.
It was good enough at all, but I think I prefer it the other way. I'll have to experiment a bit here.Wed, 07 Apr 2010 02:20:29 -0400/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=35421
Irish Breakfast - Extra Fancy from Red Leaf TeaWed, 07 Apr 2010 06:08:11 -0400/teas/Irish%20Breakfast%20-%20Extra%20Fancy/8193-irish-breakfast-extra-fancy?post=35430
Orchid Oolong from Mighty Leaf TeaI'm bagging it with one of these teabags that *TeaEqualsBliss* sent me ages ago. Which reminds me that I also have some notes on swap teas from her that I haven't got around to typing up and posting yet.
This one smells like coconut. Very much like coconut actually. The bag is one of these big nylon things so I can see that it's real leaves inside. Bit broken, but not your average teabag dust.
It's the same aroma after steeping. Probably more coconut milk than coconut proper, but it's close enough. I really like coconut milk in food, but I'm feeling a bit sceptical about it in tea. In spite of the fact that I've seen many of you have coconut-y favourites.
It's not so bad on the flavour, though. This is actually quite nice. The primary flavour is the oolong from the darker end of the spectrum. Almost a bit earthy. Then on the swallow the coconut is there, waving a little flag and going 'Coconut Was Here!' Fairly long aftertaste of coconut too.
I like it, but I don't love it. I've only had a few sips so far, but I suspect the coconut might become a bit cloying further down in the cup. It's definitely not one for large amounts of tea, this, but it's good for one cup. Or maybe just half a cup.
I don't think I've had a coconut-y tea before. Interesting.Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:19:53 -0400/teas/Orchid%20Oolong/5753-orchid-oolong?post=35461
Genmaicha from Kusmi TeaThis a backlog from last night just before bedtime. It was supposed to be another Tie Guan Yin steep but then there was gaiwan-fail and a lot of wiping up of leaves and such. Then I remembered I had this bag and decided to do that instead.
Then as I was sitting in bed reading and sipping, I realised that it was gift tea from a swap with *EvaPeva* so I really ought to make a proper post about it. It was really late so I wasn't about to get up and turn the laptop on again though, but I'll tell you what I remember.
Overall, I liked it a lot. It was sweet and very velvety smooth. It felt almost soft in the mouth. The nuttyness from the rice was quite nice too and not overpowering. It was just right.
I wouldn't be able to say whether or not I liked it better than other genmaichas, but I will say that overall I liked it better than I have generally liked bagged Kusmi before. I haven't had any of their loose leaf stuff (yet) but I have had a selection box with some of their bags. It's like it makes a difference with their loose leaf, but my overall thought of that sampler box was that Kusmi as a brand was somewhat overrated. (I've also occassionally had a bag in the train home from my parents if I've been travelling first class, but that was brewed with water kept hot in a thermos, so I'm not really sure it counts)
I'm glad I had this one that was just genuinely good. It has renewed my hopes for Kusmi teas again.Thu, 08 Apr 2010 07:54:01 -0400/teas/Genmaicha/8094-genmaicha?post=35561
Jade Spring Green from TeaSourceGood morning all.
Just a small cup of this before leaving. I'm going to be away for a few days, so I'll see you again on monday or tuesday (depending on exhaustion levels). Just a little to wake up on and settle the nerves and such.
I got this one from *EvaPeva*, and I just realised that I haven't posted about it before. I know I've had some of it at least twice though, so that's bad negligence on my part I guess. She was sending me some japanese greens, as you know, but included a couple of other goodies, like a good supply of this. You would think she knew that this is a green type I'm quite fond of!
I just wish I had time for more than these two steeps. At least I used the gaiwan, otherwise I wouldn't even have had time for one. It's really very nice. I don't really have time to go all in depth about it, but it's definitely a very nice little tea.
Okay, I gotta be off, Steepsterites! I'll see you in a few days.Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:29:44 -0400/teas/Jade%20Spring%20Green/10319-jade-spring-green?post=35665
Samovar from Kusmi TeaGreetings all! Some of you may have noticed that I've returned from the Wild Abroad (AKA Paris) where I've spent a weekend in nice company with friends and a number of scary moments in airports. I do not like airports no I do not. I meant to look for both Kusmi and Mariage Freres while in France but as it turns out, I got to visit a Kusmi store as one of the first things we did and then forgot all about the Mariage Freres. Oh well, sometimes stuff doesn't work out like we've planned so I'll have to satisfy my curiosity in that department in the old fashioned way. Internet shopping. :) If you want to read more about my trip, I will put up a trip report later at iarnvidia.livejournal.com (I just have to, you know, write it first)
Anyway, this was one of the two things I did get. We do have a selection of Kusmi fairly easily available in Denmark, but this isn't one of them and I had been very curious to try it. The information from Kusmi says 'slightly smoky'. Slightly? No. This is properly smoky. It has a bit of a bite on the tongue at first, a soft feeling of phantom milk and then a remarkable sweetness on the end of the flavour.
I let the cup cool off a little bit too much before drinking it and it has developed a sort of ash tray-y aftertaste which isn't entirely pleasant. It's a taste a bit like when you've just been in a room where you're the only non-smoker and then go outside. I haven't had that experience with any of my other smokies, so that's a little disappointing for me.
The rating currently reflects my initial impression, but I think I might change it later.Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:54:46 -0400/teas/Samovar/11230-samovar?post=36117
Samovar from Kusmi TeaThis would be the second steep of the leaves from this morning. I don't know if that's the reason or if it's because I drank it quicker, but it seems to have lost that ash-y flavour that I noticed the first time around. It's still both smoky and sweet though, but I really think this one would benefit from a little milk. I'll have to try that another time.
(Also, Paris trip report up at LJ http://iarnvidia.livejournal.com/773.html for those who might be interested in that. You don't need a livejournal account to read or comment)Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:40:31 -0400/teas/Samovar/11230-samovar?post=36148
An Xi Tie Guan Yin traditional charcoal roast from Life In TeacupI love smokies. I love the way they prickle on the tongue and the surprise of sweetness that shows up on the swallow. Sometimes a lot sometimes just a hint.
I love Tie Guan Yin. I love the almost floral freshness of them, the lovely green colour of the leaves and the lightheartedness of the flavour.
Smoky + Tie Guan Yin = ?
What could _possibly_ go wrong here?
Well, I am about to find out, as *Cait* happened to be in possesion of some and very kindly offered to send me a sample of it when I expressed my curiosity.
The leaves have darkened so they look like an oolong from the darker end of the spectrum. They smell very oolong-y and grass-y, but not really smoky as such. It's definitely not a 'normal' oolong smell, but it's not really smoke either. It's more like... a touch of smoke. The memory of smoke. If I search really hard in the aroma, I can find real smoke, but the grass-y oolong-y parts of the aroma are just so strong and insist on being in the foreground at all times.
Tea-making not being an exact science, I think I gave it a slightly longer steep here than what is strictly necessary, so that may account for the appearance. It looks a bit more reddish brown than the regular Tie Guan Yin. The aroma is very oolong-y but with a crisp sort of bite to it. Again, not really smoke. More like... toast. There's something very fruity here too. Sweet apple-y. Interesting. I've never found that in a Tie Guan Yin before.
Oh my ceiling cat!
First sip made me really widen my eyes in wonder. This tea must have gold dust in it, that's how good it is. It's not smoky as we know our regular smokies. It doesn't have that same bite, not at first. At first it's more toasted than smoky and then the smoke shows up on the swallow. That's so backwards!
This actually reminds me quite strongly of Genmaichas. There is the same sort of nutty toastedness in it. That apple from the aroma is a bit harder to find but if the tea isn't too terribly hot, there's a touch of it for a brief moment when it first hits the tongue.
I've got enough leaves for one more pot, but I'll have to check the vendor because I can't remember now if they were one of the places to have reasonable shipping to Europe or not. If they do, I will without a doubt need more of this. Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:45:04 -0400/teas/An%20Xi%20Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20traditional%20charcoal%20roast/9712-an-xi-tie-guan-yin-traditional-charcoal-roast?post=36272
Caramel from Kusmi TeaThe other tea I bought in Paris!
It's not actually the first time I've had it since then, but now I sort of have the semi-energy to post about it.
I have come to trust *Auggy's* taste in tea implicitly. Seriously, our tea tastes are so similar it's amazing, so when I saw her posting about this a little while before I went on holiday, I immediately added it to the list of stuff to look for. Thanks for that, *Auggy*.
I had a caramel tea from Luka before and it had little caramel bits in it. This one doesn't and it's not really the same kind of tea at all. Luka's caramel black had a sort of creamy taste, (as I recall anyway) where as this is more tea-y with a flavour of caramel than caramel-y with a flavour of tea.
I like that.
This one is also making me want to explore this brand a bit more. Hmmm... Yes...Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:06:00 -0400/teas/Caramel/5814-caramel?post=36442
Carävan from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaI hope everything went through properly with A&D because this is the last of the sample *Auggy* sent me.
It's yummy, now that I've figured out where the funny strawberry-y side-flavour came from. Cup not rinsed properly after having been used for something else. It kind of worked, but I do prefer it 'pure'.
Didn't do anything for my headache though. Can this hectic month of constant socialness be over soon, please?Sun, 18 Apr 2010 07:23:40 -0400/teas/Car%C3%A4van/8408-caravan?post=36743
Cherry Vanilla Cola Black Tea from 52teasHalf my normal steeping time seems to be the secret here.Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:39:24 -0400/teas/Cherry%20Vanilla%20Cola%20Black%20Tea/7168-cherry-vanilla-cola-black-tea?post=36750
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sNom nom nommity nom.
Nom.
Nommity.
Nom.
Did I mention nom?Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:23:58 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=36912
Coconut Cream Pie from 52teasFirst tea of the morning. How decadent!
I'm allowed decadent today though, since it's the first day with a new age. I'm also supposed to have cake for breakfast, but I don't have any cake handy so I'm skipping that. :) I can't be bothered to go get some.
A while ago I had a bag of something or other where I concluded that I just wasn't really all that fond of coconut in tea. Taking this one out now really confuses me on that point now, because I _like_ this one and it's very little _else_ than coconut! How does that work? I don't understand it.
Okay, it is a bit decadent first thing in the morning... A bit _too_ decadent actually. I think I'll have a more... you know... sensible one after this. Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:52:22 -0400/teas/Coconut%20Cream%20Pie/555-coconut-cream-pie?post=37151
Anastasia from Kusmi TeaThis year's gift to myself was the Kusmi sample set of russian blends and this cup http://www.roykirkham.co.uk/_images/_images/m/577.jpg which is the same series as my favouritest ever teapot. I love how it's standing there all full of tea and baaa-ing at me.
Anyway, this is the first one out of the sample set, chosen by ippy-dippy.
My nasal membranes are dried out today. I can't figure out if I'm on the verge of a cold or something or not, but they definitely aren't working, so I didn't get much out of smelling the dry leaves. I could smell them, but not well enough to tell anything beyond 'citrus' and after a while it just started to feel weird in the nose.
Enough about my health, you're not interested in that. Let's just skip to the part where smelling the steam coming off the cup of finished tea went much much better. It's definitely citrus-y. Primarily bergamot with the others coming in on top. Like Earl Grey With Friends.
I was expecting sweet citrus, but this isn't really it. Again, the bergamot is in the forefront and it's got that slightly bitter bite to it. I'm glad the other citruses are there too because without them I'm not sure I'd have liked this as much. As it is, it's nice but not a favourite. Maybe it'll change later. It's been known to happen that I completely fall in love with something I initially didn't think that much of. The much beloved Tan Yang being a good example of this.
I do wish it was sweeter though, so I tried adding some cane sugar. Didn't work either. Oh it's sweeter alright, but not in the right way. The sugar doesn't really merge with the citrus flavours like I wanted it to. The tea flavour is unchanged and then the sugar sweetness is there sort of next to it.
This is an enjoyable blend, but I'll keep looking for a favourite, I think.Wed, 21 Apr 2010 07:02:34 -0400/teas/Anastasia/8050-anastasia?post=37154
St. Petersburg from Kusmi TeaI AM SUCH A SPOILED SPOILED SPOILED PERSON, I'M JUST SAYING! _flails_
Had to get that out of my system. :p
Also from the Kusmi sampler pack we have this one, which has citrus and caramel. Funny sort of combination. Not one I would have been able to come up with on my own.
Totally caught up in the being spoiled and in having strawberries with milk for dessert, I forgot to pay attention to leaf smell and predictably to steeping time. So I don't know if this post will be entirely accurate.
It does smell like some sort of citrus flavoured caramel. It's kind of weird and kind of natural at the same time. The two smells merge quite well, the citrus taking some of the heaviness out of the caramel.
Tastewise, there's definitely some oversteep damage here. There's a bitterness to the swallow that I'm sure is not supposed to be there. A bit like a mix of soap and overcooked bergamot.
So I'm not going to give it any points yet. I want to try it properly first, but given the aroma, I'm feeling pretty hopeful about this one.Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:43:13 -0400/teas/St.%20Petersburg/4128-st-petersburg?post=37225
Bouquet of Flowers No. 108 from Kusmi TeaI wish my postman would fill out the 'from' field when he gives me that little notice about a package to pick up on the post office. There's one there now, waiting for me to pick it up on saturday. It's either my Series 3 from Andrews & Dunham or it's a package from *JacquelineM*, and I'd quite like to know which. Sorry, *JacquelineM*, but I'm hoping for the former here, because if it's yours, then I'll have to start getting concerned about the A&D.
In the meantime, another Kusmi sample. I'm a little concerned about this one. The leaves... They smell of soap. And lavender. I _like_ lavender. As, you know, a flower. Or as an essential oil to help me sleep if I'm having trouble in that department. I don't have that good experiences with drinking it. I think I've had an Earl Grey with lavender in it once which I sort of liked, but that one didn't smell of soap!
After steeping, the aroma is less soap-y and more citrus-y, but still very very very grandmother-y. Yes, that it. Grandma perfumes and cleaning agents.
Earl Grey gone girly. There is definitely bergamot-y dusty notes here underneath all the grandma-ness. There is sooooo much perfume-y flower-y badness here. It's so bad I can't even come up with another way of describing it. It's so bad I've become like record with a scratch in it. Perfume! Grandma! Perfume! Grandma! Perfume! Grandma! Perfume! Grandma!
Ew. I'm dumping this.Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:26:15 -0400/teas/Bouquet%20of%20Flowers%20No.%20108/592-bouquet-of-flowers-no-108?post=37323
Samovar from Kusmi TeaThat bouquet of flowers thing was _vile!_
Give me something better. Something I know what is. Something I can trust.
Staying brand-loyal though. You can't beat a smoky. I've met smokies that were better than other smokies, but I can't recall ever having come across one that wasn't good.Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:37:29 -0400/teas/Samovar/11230-samovar?post=37328
Earl Grey from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaA&D ARE IN DA HOUSE!!! Sorry *JacquelineM* we'll have to wait a little bitty while longer for your package.
Anyway, this is a company with very reasonable international shipping rates (about $11 world-wide flat rate) and I just WISH I'd found out about that sooner. It took *Auggy* sharing a sample of the awesome Caravan with me to make me desperate enough to go have a look. Now I'm sad that I missed out on the others series. Jackee Muntz and Thomas Sampson in particular. Oh well. I guess we can't have everything.
This is going to be interesting. I have high expectations of this company, maybe to the point of foolishness considering that I have only tried the Caravan and since that was a smoky, I was predisposed to love it.
This Earl Grey business is another kettle of fish. I'm not really an Earl Grey fan. There are some that I have liked a lot (Kusmi's Smoky Earl Grey is great for example), but it's not a type I would generally go for myself. The Bergamot can easily become bitter and dusty for me. I did consider seeing if I could get someone to split a set with me so I got the Caravan and they got this one, but then I got greedy and wanted it all for myself.
The aroma of the dry leaves is very bergamot-y but not overwhelmingly so. This is a good thing. Clear bergamot, but not a promise of dusty bitterness. After steeping it's the same. The bergamot aroma is very clear, but I can't really pick up the tea. Just bergamot.
Hmmm... I'm in doubt, Steepsterites. Flavour here seems to be twofold. There is a fresh sort of sparkly flavour just at first. It's familiar but I can't really place it. Some kind of sweet citrus-y thing, I think. Without it being truly citrus-y at the same time. It just there for a brief, brief moment and then it's all bergamot. Heavy, dusty and borderline bitter on the soft palate(*).
I like the little pang-flavour there at the beginning, although it because more and more difficult to find as I drink, as the heavy bergamot lingers in the aftertaste and drowns it out. The aftertaste is pleasant though. The heavyness goes away quickly and it leaves this citrus-y remnant that makes my mouth feel fresh and gives the tea a sort of summer-y image.
Considering the fact that I'm not an Earl Grey fan, I would say, "Yes, this is indeed a damn fine tea."
~(*) Note I said 'palate' there. Not palette, which is something a painter uses to mix paints on.~Sat, 24 Apr 2010 04:35:18 -0400/teas/Earl%20Grey/8407-earl-grey?post=37531
Black Currant Bai Mu Dan from 52teas*JacquelineM* sent me a sample of this, and I have to say I'm a little bit scared of it. If it's not awesome, I think I might in fact cry. When asked, I requested a sample because this sounds like it might be in the same fruity category as the Unmentionable Raspberry Oolong of Awesomeness from AC Perch's, and the base for this one is a favourite too. I've been terribly curious about it, but hadn't got around to buying some myself. So I figured I'd ask for a sample and if I liked it, I could buy some for myself.
Okay. Then, in came *52teas* the other day and gave me a free shipping coupon code for my birthday. I'm not actually allowed to buy more tea until I've got through some of the stuff I've got, but since he was so nice and stuff, it would rude of me to not take advantage of it, right? Right. So I ordered some fruity stuff, this one included.
So now I feel a little bad for asking for a sample and buying it before even getting the sample. And what if I don't like it? Then I can sit here and wait for an order containing something I already know I don't like!
ARGH! This is very confusing!
Anyway, there's only one way to settle all these fears and that's by making a cup, so that's what I've done. (Also, having just liberated a tin from a mediocre chai concoction, I need something like this to un-sticky-fy my mouth.)
The leaves smell very sweet and fruity. Like ice cream! I feel calmer about the whole thing now. After steeping the aroma is more tea than fruit. I can clearly pick up the base tea here, with the black currant tartiness being a little more controlled. It does indeed remind me a lot of the raspberry oolong.
Oh yes. Oh my Ceiling Cat. Oh YES! This is the stuff. Oh yes oh yes oh yes.
It's like taking a handful of berries in your mouth and then when you eat them they all have different degrees of ripeness. Some are tartier and some are sweeter and what you get is a sort of mix of this.
That's what I'm getting on this here. One sip contains the nutty base of the white tea and some sweetness and some tartness and some inbetweenness and everything at the same time. It's sweet and summerly and I feel almost guilty for having it now when it's not yet really summer.
It's totally worth all the initial emo-ing about it. I own this AND the raspberry oolong. I feel pretty darn rich! Sat, 24 Apr 2010 08:29:43 -0400/teas/Black%20Currant%20Bai%20Mu%20Dan/10146-black-currant-bai-mu-dan?post=37533
Aniseed from Luka Te m.m.Tin liberation! Yay! Second tin freed in two days.
Good morning Steepsterites.
I made this extra strong this morning (so as to use the rest of the leaves), added some of Adagio's cinnamon and a good splash of milk.
I must be sleepier than I thought because when I took the first sip, I was honestly surprised to discover it wasn't coffee...
Also, I've docked a lot of points from this one. It's time to stop kidding myself. I just really really wanted to like it better than I actually did, and I was trying to convince myself that I did by cheating the brain with more points than it was worth. Obviously, it didn't really work.Sun, 25 Apr 2010 01:48:45 -0400/teas/Aniseed/5977-aniseed?post=37627
Troika from Kusmi TeaMoving right along, here we have something citrus-y. Looks like Russian = Citrus, preferably bergamot in Kusmi-Land.
Okay, I'm beginning to develop a linking for citrus. Still not an Earl Grey fan as such though, but none of these are plain Earl Greys which I think may be what makes the difference.
This one is kind of mild. There's the heavy bergamot on the bottom but it's not very pronounced at first. On top there are the other citrus flavours, and they are really what is holding the flavour up.
As the cup cools the bergamot comes out more and the other citrus flavours take a step back, so it's kind of a double feature this one.
I quite like it.Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:10:00 -0400/teas/Troika/7683-troika?post=37636
Gunpowder from UnknownI keep seeing Gunpowder being described as being smoky. I don't get it. I can't for the life of me find any smoke in it at all. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Nichts.
In the aroma of the dry leaves I kind pick something up that I _think_ must be what some are interpreting as smoke, but to me it isn't smoke. To me it's more plant-y hay-y. No sign of smoke in the steeped tea aroma either.
I have brewed this really really carefully, and still all I can find is slightly butter-y vegetableness with a fair amount of astringency. Mind you, my gunpowder is old and of a fairly low quality, but I cannot find smoke anywhere in the flavour. I wouldn't be able to find smokyness in this if my life depended on it.
I just don't get it. How do you get it to be smoky???Sun, 25 Apr 2010 07:19:46 -0400/teas/Gunpowder/2312-gunpowder?post=37640
Prince Vladimir from Kusmi Tea*JacquelineM* inspired me to try this one, which I think is the last of the Kusmi sampler that I haven't tried yet.
This stuff smells _awesome!_ It's mildly spicy and very fruity, and it's not even citrus-fruity, it smells much sweeter. I think that must be the vanilla. All together it smells, bizarrely, a bit like Dr Pepper. (Stop laughing, it does!) After steeping the Dr Pepper smell goes away and it's mainly a mild spicyness and some fruity sweetness which has taken on a more citrus-y aspect.
Hey, this is really nice! It's slightly spicy and clove-y just in the beginning but then when I swallow the citrus sort of gently comes out and spreads over my mouth. It's almost a little tingly. I'm not sure where the vanilla is but I think it's hiding behind the cloves and being a little shy.
This is not something that knocks me off my feet with wow-ness, but it's definitely something that I could see myself reaching for again and again, and I believe this may end up in a tin purchase.
Now I'll just have to try the St Petersburg again and get it right, but so far, I believe this one is my favourite of the five. It's very nice.
Sun, 25 Apr 2010 13:46:39 -0400/teas/Prince%20Vladimir/2139-prince-vladimir?post=37664
Carävan from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaToday, I just can't be bothered. Therefore I'm in a weird situation where I've got a sample of Dawn from *JacquelineM* lying around that I haven't tried yet, in spite of having (and still do) looked forward to trying it far AAAAAGES since she first offered me a sample. It just deserves more energy and attention than I'm currently capable of giving it.
So obviously I'm in need of tea. Good tea. Awesome tea. Tried, tested and true tea. When in doubt, go smoky.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I should go and do something else.Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:59:28 -0400/teas/Car%C3%A4van/8408-caravan?post=37795
Dawn from The Simple LeafWeird. Yesterday I wasn't really tired as such, I just couldn't be bothered. Today, I had an hour over time, I'm really really tired, I've found a bagel-place where I can get Dr Pepper (!!! (It's not impossible that I've seen that before and forgotten it, actually)) and I haven't opened it yet. It's just standing there looking inviting and yummy.
And what I _really_ want is tea. More specifically, the Dawn from *JacquelineM*. I don't know, maybe I had to sort of... prepare myself mentally for it. Whatever it was, I knew for absolute certain that I was going to try it now.
I've been really looking forward to this one because all the posts I've read about it have reminded me of the beloved Tan Yang from TeaSpring. You know... the one they don't _have_ anymore! And that was one awesome tea. Seriously.
The leaves look really big and long and to my surprise they smell of chocolate. Not cocoa as I had expected, but real chocolate, all sweet and milky, as if the bag I got the sample in used to contain sweets. After steeping it has this funny sort of smell that I know what is, I just don't _know_ what it is. But I know I know the smell. It's sort of like a dark oolong, with some chocolate notes and some fruity notes and something kinda malty. It's... It's.... I don't know what exactly it is, but it is it.
Interesting flavour! It definitely reminds me of the Tan Yang with the initial fruityness and then some cocoa-y chocolate and a touch of... is that _smoke???_ IT _IS!!!_ Just a touch, but it's there. Just like in the Tan Yang. Seriously, if I didn't know better, I would swear it was the same tea. This is really really REALLY good. I'll savour the sample, and I'm looking forward to seeing if it'll turn properly smoky on second steep.
I _need_ to check this company out, their shipping policies in particular. If this is available to me, I must have it. (But later.)Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:17:58 -0400/teas/Dawn/4795-dawn?post=37943
Irish Breakfast from Adagio TeasI woke up with an Irish Breakfast craving. Actually what I really wanted was the one from AC Perch's but then I remembered that I still had this sample that *TeaEqualsBliss* sent me and it might be better to get that used up. I got a generous sample, so there are still plenty of leaves left.
This one is yummy too though. Not the first Irish Breakfast I've ever had, but the first one where I've sat down and really paid proper attention to the details of flavour and aroma.Wed, 28 Apr 2010 04:38:15 -0400/teas/Irish%20Breakfast/53-irish-breakfast?post=38011
St. Petersburg from Kusmi TeaThis is bergamot, red fruit and caramel. As a rule, I'm a fan of red fruit, so I'm feeling positive about this one. I've tried this once before where it didn't go so well so I didn't rate it then. I've been more careful this time. Considering that my Irish Breakfast session was a bit of tea-fail involving a forgotten pot, a cup gone cold and a severe oversteep, so I only really got the half pot it took me to write the post, I'm not sure what I was thinking here. You'd think on days like these I'd be going for something more well-known and less annoying if it goes wrong.
It smells very very nice. Red fruit-y, yes indeed. Cherries or strawberries, I think. Possibly both. There is also a very sweet caramel-y aroma on top of it all, and you sort of have to smell your way through that to get to the fruit notes. It doesn't smell at all citrus-y this time so it would seem that this takes longer to come out in the aroma. I definitely caught citrus the first time a week ago when I oversteeped it. No red fruits then, though.
Odd flavour. I can pick up all four major notes that are supposed to be there. The red fruit, the bergamot, the caramel and the vanilla. It's just that I'm not really sure how well I think these things suit each other. Take the red fruit, for example. Red fruit and citrus is good. Red fruit and caramel, I can do that too. Red fruit and vanilla is also nice. Red fruit and citrus and caramel and vanilla is just... odd. A little crowded maybe. That said, I'm not sure you could leave any of them out either. Which would you take out? Wouldn't the result just be kind of really weakling-y boring? I think it would.
This is a really strange situation of a blend that doesn't entirely work, but I _like_ that it doesn't work. And if I like it, then that must mean it works, because something that doesn't work shouldn't be very nice or at the most mediocre. But this is definitely better than just mediocre. So it both works and it doesn't work at all, all at the same time and for the same reasons. It's paradox tea. It's probably best to try not to think too much about it.
So what's the absolute primary note here? The fruit, definitely, with a bit of vanilla to not make it too tart. And just after that there is the caramel. I also have Kusmi's caramel black, and I think being familiar with that one is an advantage when drinking this. Underneath all that is the bergamot with a slightly dusty bottom mostly on the swallow.
I think I'm liking this, but I haven't decided yet if I want to buy more of it. It's not impossible, so I'm putting it on the shopping list. I can always take it off later if I change my mind.Wed, 28 Apr 2010 07:43:02 -0400/teas/St.%20Petersburg/4128-st-petersburg?post=38016
Darj Oolong Gopaldhara (OI02) from Nothing But TeaLet's try some new oolong now. Well, new and new, it's from the same sample box that I've had for a few months now. I've had Darjeeling oolong before, and I remember I found it somewhat boring and ended up giving it away. That turned out to be a good decision because the recipient really liked it. I seem to recall the phrase 'a cure for the common cold' being involved.
So I'm not really getting my hopes up for this one, you understand.
The sample I got was enormous! Seriously big. I think they must have put more in there than they had in the others, because I swear it's not just all leaf size. The leaves are large, but they're not _that_ large.
The aroma is oolong-y and darjeeling-y, so no surprises there. There is a grassy sweetness to it and something that promises that almost-mint-y cool sour aftertaste.
There's a distinctly roasted flavour here, and around it some sour-y grass-y notes ending up in that cool-ish aftertaste I mentioned before. And that's really it. That's all there is to it. Try as I might I can't come up with anything else to say about it.
Once again darjeeling oolong as a type has failed to wow me. It's not a bad tea at all. There's nothing wrong with the flavour. It's just not very interesting.Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:44:47 -0400/teas/Darj%20Oolong%20Gopaldhara%20(OI02)/8985-darj-oolong-gopaldhara-oi02?post=38022
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sthis tea is chosen based on how easy the tin was to open anhd also because i bloody well deserve some spoiling.
the only reason i'm posting anythung at all is to say i'm going to be quiet and lurky for a little while because i managedto cvut the tip of my right index finger at work so i can't really use it for anything. this is all typed with one hand and as you can see it's not really ideal. i don't have patience for this. but i can still use the mouse so i am around, i just can't really type much. it's niot as bad as it sounds only two stitches, it's just in a reallu impractical place.Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:40:27 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=38149
Sugar Plum from Eastern Shore Tea CompanyFri, 30 Apr 2010 01:28:24 -0400/teas/Sugar%20Plum/7832-sugar-plum?post=38243
Joy from TazoSat, 01 May 2010 03:18:41 -0400/teas/Joy/943-joy?post=38346
High Energy from Eastern Shore Tea CompanySat, 01 May 2010 05:09:43 -0400/teas/High%20Energy/3838-high-energy?post=38347
Masala Chai from Chai BabySat, 01 May 2010 06:23:16 -0400/teas/Masala%20Chai/7622-masala-chai?post=38348
Pomegranate Berry from SaladaSat, 01 May 2010 09:02:30 -0400/teas/Pomegranate%20Berry/8677-pomegranate-berry?post=38350
Black Currant Bai Mu Dan from 52teasSat, 01 May 2010 09:21:29 -0400/teas/Black%20Currant%20Bai%20Mu%20Dan/10146-black-currant-bai-mu-dan?post=38351
Black Currant Bai Mu Dan from 52teasokay, bear with me as i try to type this. i'll make it sjhort so you don't have to deal with my lack of capoitalisation and typos for too long. typing is still tricky business obviouslyu and finger is sore especiually on contact but i'm getting by. i'm capable if washiong my own hair for exampke which was a relief to learn. also i reallu mioss posting!
but i wanted to tell you about this. i've used tjhe last of the sample that jacqueklienem sent me and resteeped it loads of times because that was easuer for me. been doing lots of bags and resteepalbel things lately. this is the third steep and since i poured the cuo and forgot about it i decided to put it in the firdge and see what happened.j
i'm not usually one for iced tea much, biut this actuallyu worked out quite nicely. now i'm reallu looking forward to my birthday order from 52teas to arrive,
and if you all gave up on trying ti decipher this i don't blame yoiu.Sun, 02 May 2010 06:38:55 -0400/teas/Black%20Currant%20Bai%20Mu%20Dan/10146-black-currant-bai-mu-dan?post=38421
Russian Blend from Samovarobviously i'm not too good at being quiet. *doulton* is a very generous lady who wanted to celebrate tjhe queen's recent 70th birthday wtih me by gifting me some tea, and i just received a sizeable selectiuon of stuff. two of thjem were things i had asked for and the rest stuff she thought i would like. inclliuding a few things that i had been interested in previusly and forgotten aboiut, so it woild appear that *doulton* has spent quite an effort on workong out what i tend to like best.
sinve typiung is so hjard starting with something brand new was a bit hard for me because i want to be able to write a prober reviuew, so the fact that she also inclided a fresh sippkly of this one that *auggy* sent me earklier and i hjad precioius little left off was my rescue.
this is an all roinmd awesome tea. smokeu and lovely and rememberig the success of milk and jam, i added a small teaspoonful of raspberruy jam, unfirtunately i doin't have any milk.Wed, 05 May 2010 03:51:21 -0400/teas/Russian%20Blend/7491-russian-blend?post=38719
Tropical Explosion White Tea from 52teasIt was bad enough letting *Doulton's* teas sit there and wait for me to regain full control of the keyboard again. But then the order from 52teas arrived today, and things only got more difficult. And then I opened one, just to smell it, and one thing led to another and so on... ahem.
So I'm giving it a go and as you can see I'm trying really hard to be patient here and type sloooowly and properly.
The reason I'm starting with this one is very simpkly that it was the one that I ripped the top off to smell. It had a stronger aroma than I had expected. I thought something sweetly fruity like fresh fruit. What it actually was was more like dried fruit, a bit soapy. Of course. It's dried fruit in it. Not sure how this always manages to surprise me but it's the same every single time.
After brewing the soapy note goes away. The primary notes in the aroma here are pure fruit, especially passion fruit, weirdly, and coconut with a bit if banana in the background. The passion fruit is odd because it not apparently supposed to be tjehre. It's just reminding me so strongly of the passion fruit black I used to have from Adagio. I'm not picking up any pine apple and I don't know what papaya smells like.
Tastewise there's a lot of coconut overall in the flavour, but right there on the front we have pineapple loud and clear. Here we definitely have the fruity sweet that I was searching for in the aroma of the dry leaves, and lots of it. The beautiful thing about it is that the white tea itself is coming through quite well also. It's a tea, not a sort of hot cordial. As it cools a bit, the banana is coming out more strongly too.
I bought this because of the success the bkack currant bai mu dan was for me and I wanted to continue explorijng the fruitier choices. This is definitely a winner for me, and if you liked the black currant bai mu dan, I suggest you give this one a go too. I think it would work quite nicely as a dessert with all the fruityness.
And yes, it would seem that I am actually capable of typing withiout all those typos. But it also took som,e 25 minutes to write this. _sigh_ stupid finger!Wed, 05 May 2010 09:06:20 -0400/teas/Tropical%20Explosion%20White%20Tea/10145-tropical-explosion-white-tea?post=38728
Eight at the Fort from Harney & SonsSince it went so wekk with the tropiucal explosion, why not move on to one of these poor neglected *Doulton* teas. Thjis one I was really excited to receive and that's a big reason why I'm having it first. I was reallyu curioius about it the first time I saw someone post aboiut it, but then it seems to have gone ouit of fashion and I forgot about it. The brand is unavailable to me so it was one that I had given up on getting to taste.
The leaves had a really funny smell. The smoke and the silver tips were most dominent in the aroma and smoky white tea is exactly as weird a smell as it soiunds. My nose had quite an identity crisis trying to suss that one out.
I wnet and skimmed through some of the posts about it and it would appear that it would be a good idea to let the water cool off a bit before steeping, so I'm doing the same thing.
After steeping I'm getting a string malty aroma, but not really any smoke. There is a grassy sweetness to it that I can't decide if I think it's the darjeeling or the silver tips. I'm leanjong tiowards the former.
Okay, this is going to sound weird. There's a certain bitter bite to this, like it's a bit overdone. At the same time the fkavour is kinda watery as if I didn't use enough leaf for the amount. If I used both too much leaf and not enoigh leaf at the same time, I must have got it just right.
But the flavour does seem to have two faces. The mild, grassy white and darjeeling one and opposite the slightly bitter darker astringency of assams and ceylon, and the more 'middle-ish teas' such as the oolong and the nilgiri aren't really managing to bring the two together. They may be reaching out to each other but not quite touching.
I'm liking it thoigh. It's not a revelation of awesomeness and I'm a littke disappointed that I'm notr detecting any smoke, but it's definitely a quite nice tea and I'm glad I got to satisfy my curiosity.Wed, 05 May 2010 12:03:48 -0400/teas/Eight%20at%20the%20Fort/1041-eight-at-the-fort?post=38743
Bogart from Leland Tea CoI'm letting myself be inspired by the Steepsterites and trying this one tonight, also a *Doulton* tea
this smells absolutely lovely. It reminds me of these biscuits that my mother bakes for chirstmas, but it doesjn't actually smell jparticularly christmassy, which is kind of weird when you think about it considering the biscuit-y smell. Supposedly if you blend it with laspang souchong the description says that it will supposedly become 'a coffee lovers dream of tea'.
Errrr..... Right. Except coffee isn't smoky and lapsang souchong flavour =/= coffee flavour. STOP MIXING UP COFFEE AND TEA, THEY ARE TWO VERY SEPARATE THINGS, ARGH! I'm getting a bit weary of many tea-drinkers' snobbery that coffee-drinkers are somehow inferior because they "only" drink coffee. 'Drink what you like and like what you drink' they say and then they do their utmost to make the coffee-drinker see the light. Attend a coffee tasting. Coffee is just as diverse and interesting and with just as many details for the nerd as tea.
But that was a bit of a tangent. Where was I? Oh yes, aroma. After steeping it's even more cake-y and a bit chocolate-y. Or maybe more Nutella-y than chocolate-y. Or, no, not Nutella. LU Bastogne. That's it. Do you get those out there in the Big Abroad? A sort of syrup-y cinnamon biscuit.
What a surprise to taste! Again, Bastogne, definitely. Also reminds me of that chocolate pu-erh from Numi, it's a very very similar flavour.
I like this one better though, and I'm in a funny sort of situation where having one tea is forcing me to go and dock points from another tea. It feekls strange.
Also in spite of the rant up there, I also want to try and mix it with some lapsang souchong. Thu, 06 May 2010 15:01:06 -0400/teas/Bogart/10050-bogart?post=38917
Tropical Explosion White Tea from 52teasI'm surprised at how much I'm liking this. I bought it thinking it mught be nice but I wasn't expecting this level of niceness. My history with tropical flavours in tea is a bit shaky. But this stuff is disappearing at an alarming rate. It's not too sweet and it's not too artificial, it's just right.
I strongly urge you to try this one out because mine is disappearing at an alarming rate!Sat, 08 May 2010 03:24:24 -0400/teas/Tropical%20Explosion%20White%20Tea/10145-tropical-explosion-white-tea?post=39076
Lapsang Souchong from Harney & SonsThe tropical white stuff is great and all but I'm freezing and it's time for something a little more hardy. This one was another sample gift from *Doulton*.
I tried smelling the leaves in the little envelope, but I'm not entirely certain half of what I picked up wasn't really just the envelope. I did find an awful lot of smoke down there though. A dry aroma, and a bit rough. Quite nice. I'm looking forward to a strong smoke flavour here.
After steeping it's very smoky! Like really prickling the nose smoky, but there's a sweet, almost honeyed note underneath, laying the bottom for the aroma.
Tastewise, this is very smoky! But it's not rough as such, not the way the aroma was. It's way smoother than you might have thought and I'm a little bit disappointed by that because I was rather looking forward to something RAWR! and it's only a mini-rawr.
But it _is_ a nice lapsang.Sat, 08 May 2010 03:43:22 -0400/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/3028-lapsang-souchong?post=39079
Coconut Pouchong from Golden Moon TeaI'm on a lockdown until I have liberated at least five tins, I've decided. Or emptied one of the 52teas pouches as they are large enough to count equal to a tin, and also got through at least 10 of the smaller samples.
Starting now. So this is the first sample, nine to go. It was another one from the *Doulton* tea present. A prize-winner even. I have to say I'm a little sceptical. The 52teas coconut cream pie is really the only coconut tea that I really like. Often I find coconut becomes rather cloying and unpleasant. So yes, I have to admit that choosing this one now was a question of getting it over with... (Sorry, *Doulton* )
I smelled the leaves before brewing and they were definitely coconut-y, but there was also so,ething else. so,mething kind of more like hazelnut-y. That's kind of interesting. After steeping it does smell of coconut, but mostly it smells like a green type oolong.
What a surprise to taste this! The coconut is definitely there, but it's not the cloying super-sweetness that I have com,e to expect. It's primarily the pouchong flavour here, and then the coconut is sort of lurking around the edges. I would never have guessed this but coconut and pouchong suit each other very nicely!
I'm shocked!Sat, 08 May 2010 06:29:08 -0400/teas/Coconut%20Pouchong/3285-coconut-pouchong?post=39083
Prince Vladimir from Kusmi TeaStitches came out today and everything's healing very nicely, the nurse said. The fingertip is still somewhat numb, but she said I shouldn't be surprised or alarmed if it continues to be for a good long while still.
I believe a celebratory yummy tea is in order. Cheers, Steepsterites.Mon, 10 May 2010 07:48:09 -0400/teas/Prince%20Vladimir/2139-prince-vladimir?post=39229
Da Hong Pao from TeaSpringWell, this is not very nice. This is a very lovely oolong when I brew it western style. Tonight though I gave it a more gong-fu-like approach. You know, just for fun and giggles.
It now has that strong cocoa-y flavour that I couldn't find earlier and some wooden notes as well. And also a weak aftertaste that could almost convince my I'm drinking coffee. It's not a lot and it's definitely not nearly as strong as if I _had_ actually been drinking coffee, but it's there and I'm not sure I like that. Coffee and tea shouldn't mix.
So now I'm torn. Should I stick to the rather nice western style brew that doesn't have that nice cocoa note, but also doesn't have coffee-esque aftertastes, or should I go with the more gong fu-y method that brings out lovely cocoa but also not-so-lovely coffee-y aftertaste?
I honestly can't figure out which is preferable here. Maybe they are equally undesirable yet still quite tasty. I can't see any way out of this; I'll have to dock some points, although it saddens me to do so.Mon, 10 May 2010 15:00:19 -0400/teas/Da%20Hong%20Pao/8707-da-hong-pao?post=39275
Pu-erh Chai from Golden Moon TeaIsn't it weird how, while I couldn't type very well, I couldn't stay away, but now that I can type again, I find I don't really have anything to say? Anyway, it's mid-may and it's EXTREMELY cold outside. The other night it got down to below freezing and the weather people say that our current weather looks much more like october weather than it does may weather. Obviously this calls for something warming and I happen to have this sample from *Doulton* handy.
Pu-erh chai??? That's one of the most bizarre things I've heard in a long time. While I do tend to like pu-erh a lot, I'm not a fan of chai, and the combination of the two things doesn't really appeal to me. But it was gift tea and I'm going to give it a fair chance instead of just passing it on. I'm not that much of a wuss.
Normally a good pu-erh, for me, has to smell of cows. It sounds odd but there are some other associations connected with this that for me makes it a good quality for a pu-erh to have. I can't say that this one smells the slightest bit of cows. I'm leaning rather a lot towards fish on that one. And we're not talking freshly caught fish here either, but fish caught the day before, or maybe the day before that. Fish that hasn't gone bad yet but is definitely getting a bit on in age. The cinnamon has a strong presence and I can detect some citrus too (Citrus in a chai? wtf?). It's not that difficult to pick the aroma apart into these component notes, but the over all impression remains fish.
Lovely. I'm feeling very assured.
Or not.
It's not without caution that I take the first sip and get a mouth full of cinnamon. And cinnamon and cinnamon and cinnamon. Not really a fan of cinnamon tea either, which probably isn't really helping with my chai issues.
I can find the citrus also and maybe a touch of cardemom, but not much. I can't really find any pu-erh flavours in it. None of that earthy slightly mouldy darkness that I like about pu-erh. Not even the tiniest smidge. Nothing.
The cinnamon gives it a lot of sweetness but from what I can tell it might just as easily be any old Earl Grey-ish type tea with a cinnamon addition.
No, this one is definitely not for me. It's drinkable and it's not unpleasant. But it isn't good either.Wed, 12 May 2010 13:34:40 -0400/teas/Pu-erh%20Chai/4403-pu-erh-chai?post=39527
Caramel from Kusmi TeaI've only posted about this one once, but I've been drinking it a lot. I like it more and more each time I have it, and it has wiggled it's way into a secure position as a goodnight-tea. The tea that I sometimes make a cup of to take to bed with me so I can drink it while I'm reading about danish history before sleeping. (I'm not kidding, it's my dork-project. I've come to the 1400-1500 period.)
It's not even that I crave it, the hand just naturally reach for this tin at that time of night. In other words, I've had a 125g tin for a month, and half of it is gone. I will definitely have to restock this when I run out and the only reason I probably won't go a tin size up is the fact that I own so much tea in total. If a second tin disappears as quickly as it seems this one will, I may consider the big tin.
Mmmmm nommy. It's way better than the pu-erh chai fiasco from before, and tonight I've managed to brew it in a way that brings out a really sweet caramel-y note. That probabably sounds a bit weird, but for me the caramel in this one, although being caramel, hasn't been _obviously_ caramel-y. That sounds even weirder, doesn't it? It was just different tonight, okay?
At any rate (hah!) I've raised the rating a fair bit based on how quickly I'm using these leaves.
Wed, 12 May 2010 14:06:45 -0400/teas/Caramel/5814-caramel?post=39535
Puerh Special Grade from TeaSourceI got this from *EvaPeva* and shared some of it with *Cait* who found yesterday that she really liked it. So I felt inspired to give it another go today, in spite of not really being in a pu-erh mood.
It's going quite nicely with this banana I'm eating.Thu, 13 May 2010 05:15:12 -0400/teas/Puerh%20Special%20Grade/10317-puerh-special-grade?post=39629
Prince Vladimir from Kusmi TeaI'm having a cup of this now and I had a cup of Kusmi's St Petersburg earlier. I really like both, but I can't decide which of the two I like best. They're very very similar but still different enough to be different.
I want to buy a tin of one of them (when I'm no longer forbidden to buy tea of course) but which one??? Don't say 'get one of both', please. They may both be yummy and there may be a difference between them, but there still similar enough that I don't really need both of them at the same time.
Since I can't decide which is better, and I also rated them very similarly originally (one at 88 and one at 84 or something like that), I'm adjusting both their ratings to an average. It seems like the right thing to do.
I've noticed that I've added this one to my steepster shopping list, though. I don't know if I've added the St Petersburg also, but if I haven't, maybe I should let that be a clue from fate and get this one?Thu, 13 May 2010 13:58:06 -0400/teas/Prince%20Vladimir/2139-prince-vladimir?post=39685
Irish Morning Tea from A C Perch'sGoodmorning Steepsterites.
I thought it was an Irish Breakfast sort of morning, especially because I spotted the tin and had forgotten I had it. And what's more, I'd forgotten what it tasted like.
I'm pleased to re-find that I like it. It has a certain amount of astringency on the swallow, especially as it cools, but apart from that it has a rich smoothness that feels a bit thick. The assam in the blend is making itself known with a very honey-ed sweetness.
I think this would be quite nice for the travel cup in the morning.Sun, 16 May 2010 03:24:28 -0400/teas/Irish%20Morning%20Tea/10092-irish-morning-tea?post=40002
Tropical Explosion White Tea from 52teasThis + fruit flavoured foam candy = epic win of fruity nomness.
(even if said foam candy has accidentally been squashed during transport home into one enormous foam candy cake... that's just not okay)
I can't believe this is nearly gone. I can't get over how much I like this. I was expecting to like it, but I didn't think I'd like it this much.Sun, 16 May 2010 08:03:12 -0400/teas/Tropical%20Explosion%20White%20Tea/10145-tropical-explosion-white-tea?post=40007
Organic Lapsang Souchong (ZS85) from Upton Tea ImportsGood evening, Steepsterites.
Here's another one I got from *Doulton's* gift. I'm a little unsure about this one. I couldn't immediately find it in the system so I entered it myself, but I was unsure if it might have been identical to one of the others in the system. There's a fair chance that I might have made a doppelganger.
Anyway, this lapsang definitely seems to be on the smokier end of the scale judging from the aroma. Just opening the little envelope sent a good whiff of smoke up in my face and when I smelled it after brewing it's like someone just put out a fire. Lovely! It's not just smoke and ashes, though. There's more substance behind it than that. I'm tempted to say coal here just because it would go so well with the ashes, but that is of course not it. It's something more forest-y. Like big trees and campsites and such. Maybe even a mountain.
Right. Before I decend entirely into mental ramblings about the exact location of aforementioned campsite and what it looks like and the people who lived there (yeah, it's one of _those_ teas), let's just move on to the taste. With this one I used a little more leaf and a little shorter steep, and the resulting flavour isn't actually nearly as smoky as the aroma would have made me think. It doesn't really have the sweetness that Golden Moon's Lapsang Souchong tends to have and that I can sometimes find in AC Perch's ditto. This one is a bit more ash-y and a little bit more wood-y.
I do really like the sweetness of the others I mentioned because I think it goes surprisingly well with the smoke. Without the sweetness the smoke so easily becomes a water-y flavour. As a colleague of mine described it, 'like standing in a smoke-filled room with a mouthful of water'. The sweet undertone gives it body and substance. This particular one doesn't have the same kind of sweetness, but it does have some body. It's just stronger and darker, and with a bit of astringency on the swallow.
I expect it probably has something to do with the way I brewed it. I still have some of Golden Moon's LS left, so I'll make a similar cup with that one and see if it changes characteristics this way too.
I like this one a lot. But I prefer the sweeter ones, I think.Sun, 16 May 2010 13:59:10 -0400/teas/Organic%20Lapsang%20Souchong%20(ZS85)/12366-organic-lapsang-souchong-zs85?post=40029
Malted Genmaicha from 52teasThis is actually the third time I've had this. It was one of the teas I got in *Doulton's* gift, and it was one of the two that I picked myself. I like genmaichas and I'm not sure what the 'malted'ness was supposed to be like. Also I couldn't figure out what the glass of milk had to do with anything. Lexitus tried to offer an explanation using wikipedia and small words, but I'm still pretty much blank as to the glass of milk.
I gather it's a special kind of milk that tastes malt-y. This is the sort of thing that can't really wrap my head around. Why would you do that to milk? What's wrong with milk-flavoured milk? Milk tastes lovely the way it is! You foreigners do some odd things to perfectly fine milk, I have to say. See in Denmark we have chocolate milk and a variety milk milks with different fat percentages. The end. (And of course a range of various yoghurt products) We get by fine on that. I'm sure you lot are all OMG O.O at this, like the time I revealed to the a bunch of americans over on LJ that in Denmark we don't have condensed milk either except for possibly industrial kitchens and such. It's just not something we use.
Anyway, so yeah. The point of this is that malt-y milk is a really weird concept for me. One thing is unnecessary flavour in milk, but _malt_ and _milk?_ I'm sorry, it just strikes me as a somewhat bizarre combination. I can't imagine that at all.
So I was curious. Against my better judgement yes, but still curious.
I can certainly smell the malt when I open the pouch. It's overwhelming! And frankly, it smells like molasses. Which is something I associate with horse food. Looking at the leaves themselves, it looks like what we've got is one part green tea and two parts puffed rice. Erm... shouldn't it have been the other way around, balance wise? I mean I want tea with puffed rice. I don't want puffed rice extract garnished with tea. (And smelling of horse food) So not a lot of points on aroma and look of leaves here.
This being my third cup out of three different sessions so I'm pretty sure I've got a consistent flavour out of it, and as one would have guessed from leaf appearance, I've got rice flavour like whoa.
And that's pretty much it, really. Rice, rice, rice, rice, rice, rice. And then on the swallow a hint of sencha and a little maltyness which thankfully isn't reminding me of horse food. That much.
I like genmaichas. But this is way too rice-y and I'm still not getting what the glass of milk has to do with anything. Is there supposed to be milk flavour in here too somewhere? If so, I'm not finding it.
I can't really decide if I kind of like this, if I like it enough for it to be drinkable, or if I don't like it at all. It's definitely not something I would invest in or something I would ask for another time. I think I'll go with drinkable on this one and that's it.
On the upside I've used almost all of what *Doulton* sent me just to get this far, so I won't have to struggle through a lot of it or find someone else to pass it on to. But I'll probably add some more sencha to what I do have left, so it isn't so rice-rice-rice-rice-rice-y.
I'm quite disappointed that I didn't like it more than this. The majority of others who have posted about it thought it was all kinds of awesome, and I'm feeling a little left out that I can't find the awesomeness. Maybe it's a cultural thing, me not being used to this whacky milk flavour? I'm sure we have super-common food products in Denmark that you lot would find bizarre too.Wed, 19 May 2010 10:43:39 -0400/teas/Malted%20Genmaicha/6498-malted-genmaicha?post=40399
Dawn from The Simple LeafHmm... _sip sip sip_
No, *Auggy's* right. While this is a yummy yummy tea, the famed Tan Yang Te Ji (I miss the Tan Yang Te Ji...) is just that little bit better.
_sip_
I just can't decide if this should be docked a couple of points or the other being given a couple more points. Yes that is important! So, I'll leave them both alone.
But the Tan Yang is just that little bit better. Wed, 19 May 2010 15:37:43 -0400/teas/Dawn/4795-dawn?post=40440
Rhubarb Green from Adagio TeasHere's an odd thing. Just yesterday I said to someone how I just haven't really been in a green mood at all lately and that everytime I think I want something green, I end up getting a little bit disappointed when I actually taste it because it turned out I'd actually rather have had something black. And then I went and had the malted genmaicha. Which is green. And a cup of sencha. Which is green. And now as I was rummaging through the samples tin, I find this one that *TeaEqualsBliss* sent to me. Which is green.
Maybe greens are just summerly enough that the warm weather we've had for a couple of days are affecting my tea choice?
Either way, this is a very nice one indeed. I'm really liking the way rhubarb just fits the tea in the most surprising way. It's all fresh and interesting and a bit creamy in texture, weirdly. I think it's because rhubarb is acidic and the green tea it's based on has a sort of citrus-y feel to it too.
I really like this as a flavour here. It's not something I'm going to go out and find, but if I happened across it, I might decide to get some.Thu, 20 May 2010 12:21:19 -0400/teas/Rhubarb%20Green/234-rhubarb-green?post=40544
Florence from Harney & SonsAnother tea from the *Doulton* gift, the second of the two I picked myself. I _think_ it's also the last one I hadn't tried yet. I think. Not sure. I don't have much in the way of a general view of the tea situation at the moment. All I know is that I'm halfway through the Lockdown Conditions I set, and that it doesn't seem to be making much of a dent in the holdings. I'll probably have to do a double of that or some such. I can deal with that. It seems like it's going pretty fast at the moment. But that was a tangent.
Back on track, we have this tea that has received absolute rave reviews on the site so I'm very very curious about it and not a little nervous of getting disappointed. I have such high expectations of it now.
Unlike the leaves which smells primarily of hazelnuts and chocolate, the aroma of the finished cup is a more tea-y sort of sweet. Oh it's still very chocolate-y and not so much with the hazelnut, but the sweetness is not _only_ chocolate.
Hmmm. That was unexpected. The aroma made me think I'd get some sort of viscous liquid like for example milk is, but that didn't really happen. I just got a sip of... tea. The flavour isn't nearly as strong as I had thought it would be. This always happens to me, though, so I don't hold much to it.
After a few more sips, it's easier for me to figure out what it actually tastes like. I need that first one to realise that I'm not going to get chocolate milk here, however much the aroma might try to convince my brain otherwise. Now, with a more reasonable tasting sensation, I'm picking up a lot of hazelnut and a slightly bitter astringency of the tea underneath, but not really a whole lot of chocolate, except if I really look for it.
As it is right now, it's a very nice tea. Nicely balanced with the nuts and the chocolate and the tea base underneath, but I think it could be better. That, though, I believe is result of my brewing. It seems a little under-done somehow. I'm just not sure yet whether it's leaf amount of steep time or both that needs tweaking here. I guess I'll just have to give one of them a go the next time I have this.Sat, 22 May 2010 03:07:17 -0400/teas/Florence/3515-florence?post=40731
Razzleberry Green from 52teasHere's one I've forgotten to post about!
I bought it back around my birthday when I got a free shipping coupon from *52teas.* I was already in the initial stages of Cupboard Lockdown at the time, but I thought it would be rude not to take advantage. Or something. Yeah. _looks shifty_ Hands up anybody who believed that statement. Anybody? No? _crickets_
Okay, so I just really wanted to take advantage of said gift. Besides it gave me an excuse to buy the black currant white and it made me discover the tropical explosion white (!!!).
My favoured flavour when it comes to fruit flavoured teas tend to be berry flavours. Raspberry oolong, black currant white, that sort of thing. So naturally when browsing the selection, this one rather appealed to me. I actually chose the black currant white first, then this and then dithered a bit on the tropical white for a while. That makes it so strange that I fell so utterly for the tropical one and more or less forgot this one.
But here it is! At last! After the longest introduction in the history of the world ever! Anybody still with me here?
There's an odd sort of aroma to this cup. It's green, definitely, and with a semi-tart-y note to it, which must be the berries. I can't pick out either berry individually, but I can sort of recognise it as a combination.
Also there's a funny almost-note which reminds me quite strongly of chamomile. Odd that... It seems so out of place! And it's not even really there. I mean when I'm actually smelling the tea, I don't get the chamomile. But the moment I take the cup _away_ from my nose, there's a whiff of 'hey, chamomile!'
It's really a shame that I'd forgotten this one, because it's really nice! It has a fresh sort of flavour to it. Green tea often has that not-mint mint-ness on the swallow which gives it a refreshing sort of quality and the berries in this one is adding to the freshness. It's not at all sour like the smell of the berries and it's very very summerly.
If you are like me and tend to gravitate towards berries in your flavoured teas, then I would definitely recommend that you tried this one. This is a hit.Sat, 22 May 2010 04:28:16 -0400/teas/Razzleberry%20Green/1652-razzleberry-green?post=40738
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch's*TeaEqualsBliss* inspired me. I wasn't actually going to post about having this, but I'm doing it anyway. So we can all see the inspiration.
Or something.Sat, 22 May 2010 12:15:48 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=40754
Jade Spring Green from TeaSourceFunny how stating that "I'm not in the mood for greens these days" puts a person in the mood for greens. The thing is that most of the time one cup of something is enough for me and then I want something else. And that means that most often I only steep once, which for greens, especially unflavoured greens, seems a little wasteful to me. I tend to have the same sort of problem with pu-erhs. But on the other hand, if the alternatives is just having unused leaves just sitting there on the shelf going boring, then what's really the difference? So I'm allowing myself to be wasteful. (Although it feels really really odd!)
This is one that *EvaPeva* sent me and I have to say that I didn't have the patience today for letting the water cool properly and what not to ensure the best brewing. So I cheated. Brought the water to a boil, added a splash of cold tap water and steeped. Normally I just let it boil and then wait a little while while it cools off. I have by now developed a rough idea of how long to wait before pouring the cooled water on the leaves, but doing it this way I have no clue if the water is still too hot or has gone too cold.
In spite of my lack of control it actually turned out rather nice. At first sip it was _insanely_ butter-y, but that particular sensation has flattened out a bit to a much more tolerable level with the next sips. After that it's very smooth.
It's a mild sort of flavour. It's not the in-your-face greenery that I've learned is typical for the japanese greens or dragonwells. The artichoke notes are there if you look for them, and especially if you slurp a little. They're just a little more discreet here.
The really weird thing with this here green is that the chamomille not-note I found in the razzleberry green from 52teas? It's here again. It's the same thing. No chamomile while I'm actually smelling the cup, but as soon as I take my nose away, there it is. It's like the tea has a note of the memory of chamomile in the aroma rather than an actual note of chamomile. That's really odd! I'm not sure how I feel about that.Sun, 23 May 2010 05:15:57 -0400/teas/Jade%20Spring%20Green/10319-jade-spring-green?post=40834
Green Pu Erh (EC22) from Nothing But TeaSo, I thought, since I have managed to put myself in a rather green mood recently, I thought maybe I could also put myself back in a pu-erh mood. And then I remembered that I happened to have the other half of this sample lying around.
So it's a pu erh experiment AND it's another notch on the Lockdown accounting. Tada!
I hadn't actually remembered the rating I initially gave it though. I just saw that now. Hm. Well, at least if I still dislike it, I'm rid of it. (I'm glad I sent the other green pu-erh sample I had to *Cait*)
Hmm.
Hmmmm.
Hmmmmmmm.
...
No, I stand by my original rating. I might make another cup and dump this. Whether or not I can be bothered to actually finish this cup depends on whether or not I can be bothered to go and make another one.
Give me pu-erh fermented from black tea any day.Mon, 24 May 2010 04:13:13 -0400/teas/Green%20Pu%20Erh%20(EC22)/8972-green-pu-erh-ec22?post=40921
Caramel from Kusmi TeaThis tin is nearly empty. I bought it in the beginning of April. A 125g tin. And all that's left now is just exactly enough leaves to cover the bottom.
That's just not okay. It _will_ need replacing. And I'm going to get the great big huge tin when that happens. I'm not mentally ready for running out of this one.Mon, 24 May 2010 15:43:03 -0400/teas/Caramel/5814-caramel?post=40986
Organic Lapsang Souchong (ZS85) from Upton Tea ImportsThe last of the Lapsang *Doulton* sent me. I was feeling the need for this quite acutely this morning. I've been up for some 2½ hours and I still feel like I only just rolled out of bed. I believe it has something to do with the _way_ I got out of said bed. Chimney sweeps. They need access to all the flats to clean the air vents and such and they were making a god-awful racket long before I was even remotely finished sleeping. The note that was passed around beforehand just had the date on it, but no estimate as to when to expect them, so I had to get up and get dressed right away. It could be five hours or it could be five minutes before it was my turn. I think it took about half an hour before they got to my door and then they were here for ten minutes or so. But my whole morning has been shot to bits. At least it's wednesday, so I'm not going to work also.
And then just before someone rang my doorbell again and I have no clue who it was. I'm expecting a package, but it's too early still to be the postman. The chimney sweeps said they were done when they left. I couldn't open the door because I was... otherwise occupied. (I was on the throne, okay! Why do people always ring my doorbell when I can't answer it???)
Anyway, I'm getting off topic there.
I didn't have enough leaf left to make the cup as strong as I really wanted to, but I'm making do, because I need it. Nothing like a mouthful of smoke to wake you up in the morning (and it seemed kind of appropriate to have a smoky tea what with the chimney sweeps and all).
I can't really remember my exact thought on it the first time I had it, but this time there seems to be a very distinct underlying sweetness. It's not the sweet sweet note of the Golden Moon's Lapsang, it's sort of buried underneath everything else. Almost milky, actually.
Keeping my Black Powder blend in mind, I'm wondering if I might not have had a nice result on this one if I'd topped the leaves off with some Gunpowder green. I think this Lapsang might have been able to carry that quite nicely. Too late now. No more leaf. I'm not sure my other Lapsangs would be entirely suitable for that experiment, being a little sweeter and a little more subdued than this one.
(Also, I'm not really here. I have found some awesome writing inspiration that I'm trying to concentrate on and take advantage of, so that's why I probably don't seem to be paying attention to my Steepsterites. If I don't go through your posts, I won't check back all the time for new notifications, you see. I've skimmed through all quick-like but that's it)Wed, 26 May 2010 04:18:55 -0400/teas/Organic%20Lapsang%20Souchong%20(ZS85)/12366-organic-lapsang-souchong-zs85?post=41181
Razzleberry Green from 52teasGOOD EVENING STEEPSTER and my _Sweet People_!
_In A Moment Like This_ I needed a happy tea. Tonight is the night of the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, which is something I try to watch every year. Most years I don't like most of the songs much, but that doesn't matter. It's fun anyway. Even if our song is usually crap. This year we've got one of the better songs we've had in years, so it's not bad.
For this purpose I needed the _Drip Drop_ of a happy fun tea. One that could really _Shine._
And this is the one. It's so happy and with a certain _Je Ne Sais Quoi_. _Butterflies_ and _Siren_ calls and what not. It's not a _Thunder And Lightening_ tea at all but it's still not really a tea that's in any danger of being _Lost And Forgotten._ At least not in my household it's not.
Well. _Thunder And Lightening_. Not normally anyway. Steeping has _Run Away_ from me tonight so it's a bit overdone. BUT I'm also armed with chocolate and fruit so I'm not completely _Playing With Fire_ here.
With a good tea and a fun European traditional contest, _Life Looks Better In Spring_ and _That Sounds Good To Me._
If you want to know more about the Eurovision Song Contest, you can visit the official site here http://www.eurovision.tv/page/home where you can hear all the songs and watch the show live.
Me, I like our song this year which is somewhat unusual (most of the time I'm mildly ashamed of what we send), but I still don't think we stand much chance of winning. I'm crossing my fingers for Iceland this year, because I think they have an awesome song and the woman singing it is gorgeous, I think.
This is me, _Sharing The Moment_
*ETA:* Germany will be hosting next year's event. Denmark finished fourth, which wasn't bad. Good night.Sat, 29 May 2010 15:04:20 -0400/teas/Razzleberry%20Green/1652-razzleberry-green?post=41546
Assam Deluxe FTGFOP from A C Perch'sFar Too Good For Ordinary People.
I'd nearly forgotten this one. I was shaking tins to see if there were any that I might be able to finish off all quick-like. Preferably today, to be honest. My Lockdown criteria are very nearly met. One more tin to empty and then I'm allowed to buy some tea again. That means stocking up on two Kusmis and looking to see if I can get a third easily around these parts. After that, I expect I'll do another Lockdown round because this first one doesn't seem to have made much of a dent, especially not in the samples. I want to get the supplies good and low before I do anything else than simple re-stocking.
Anyway, I found this one and made me a good strong cup with a generous helping of honey. On its own I tends to have a fairly prominent honey note, I think, and adding real honey to it seems to bring it out more. It's one of the few teas where I'll automatically add stuff to the cup without thinking too much about it.
Apart from that, it wasn't a very successful cup today. I used more leaf than usually (I'm trying to empty the tin, remember!) but it still seems a bit watery and weak in flavour today. Odd. It actually tastes a bit as if I used _less_ leaf than normal which just doesn't make any sense at all.
I did turn the steep time down somewhat due to the extra leaf, but not _that_ much.
Maybe it's a good thing this tin is nearly done. I don't think this is one I'd be stocking up on. It's not my perfect Assam.Sun, 30 May 2010 04:33:38 -0400/teas/Assam%20Deluxe%20FTGFOP/8117-assam-deluxe-ftgfop?post=41589
Four Red Fruits from Kusmi TeaToday I broke the Cupboard Lockdown with just one tin to go. Yes, I am perfectly aware that it was cheating, but when I tell you that the fourth tin to finish was Kusmi's Caramel, can you honestly blame me for stretching the rules a bit? Besides, the tea I had in my travel cup this morning is nearly gone and I'll probably finish off that tin within the week. Or I could take the last of the Black Powder with me to work and top off the tin, which while not completely gone, would still mean it was gone from my kitchen and that counts. Don't argue, it counts. It just does.
So I decided that I was allowed to get the four Kusmis I was interested in, and then I got punished for cheating. THEY DIDN'T HAVE THE CARAMEL!!!!!!! SHOCK!!! HORROR!!! I was so certain I'd seen it on the shelf. Not okay. The only one out of the four I was looking for they did have was the St Petersburg which of course I got. I was also looking to see if they had a plain black strawberry one, but they only had one in a sample tin IN a sample set. I pondered that one for a while and eventually decided to try this one instead. As for the others, all hope is not lost. I have a couple more places I can look and if that doesn't work out, I'll have to order.
And wow, it certainly is monday. It's one of those mondays where it's monday morning all day. I just turned the kettle on, set the timer, went away, came back when the timer went off and discovered I'd forgotten to actually pour the water into the teapot.
They didn't have this one in a sample tin, but I decided to trust the brand and get the 125g tin. I do hope I won't regret this, but I checked what other Steepsterites had said about it and there seems to be a general leaning towards yummy going on there. Good.
The leaves smell rather nice. A bit like sweets actually, but not immediately synthetic or overly perfumed. Those who have tried my Unspeakably Awesome Raspberry Oolong, The Tea That Must Not Be Named and so on and so forth (much loved children has many names, is a danish saying) will probably get what I mean when I say that it smells kind of like that one, only less pink.
The fruity aroma is a little more subdued after brewing and the actual tea aromas are trying to get a word in too, and it's just a really great balance. It smells almost exactly like what I had in mind when I decided to sea if they had a plain strawberry. (I once decided that Whittard of Chelsea made my perfect strawberry tea, but that's a good while ago and now I'm scared to try and get it again because I suspect that at this point I wouldn't find as perfect anymore).
OH YES, THIS IS GOOD STUFF! It not only smells like what I had in mind, it even tastes more or less like what I had in mind. Berry-y and summer-y. It doesn't matter that I couldn't get a plain strawberry. I don't need one. This is totally sufficient in that regard. It's not some sort of deeply poetic or profound epiphany, it's just a black tea with red berries. And that's all I want it to be. A plain good black tea with cherry, strawberry, raspberry and currant. I'm picking up the strawberry the best and that's even better because you'll remember what I was actually looking for when I took this one. Good call, me.
And I'm back on Lockdown again now, with the exception of Kusmi's Caramel if I find it and Kusmi's Russian Morning likewise, the former being the most important one.Mon, 31 May 2010 13:46:14 -0400/teas/Four%20Red%20Fruits/6533-four-red-fruits?post=41724
Caramel from Kusmi TeaEEEEEEH HE HEHEHE HEHE HEEEEEE
I HAZ IT! I HAZ IT! I knew I'd seen it on the shelf. Went to my absolutely last hope this morning and there it was in a great big 250g tin!
Yoink.
What's worse, the shop lady told me that they only make it ON ORDER so if I'd had to resort to the webshop it would have taken three weeks before I could get it. Three weeks! Not sure I would have survived that.
I'm boosting the rating on this one now. The sheer desperation with which I've searched for it and the awfulness of the prospect of having to wait nearly a whole month must surely be worth a handful of addtional points.
_manic laughter_Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:35:11 -0400/teas/Caramel/5814-caramel?post=41881
China Oolong (o) (OC04) from Nothing But TeaThe Drama-Llama has been turned loose in my work place. Like, in a big way! My boss gave me a description of the latest development today, so when I came home I felt rather in need of a good solid cup of tea.
I felt oolong-y, but not in favour of any particular oolong, so I just picked one of the ones from Nothing But Tea that I hadn't tried yet.
This one is a bit... I mean come on, just look at the name! China Oolong. Not very specific, is it? China is a big country. It has a lot of different tea districts with a lot of different teas with a lot of different characteristics.
So what to expect? I couldn't even guess if it would be from the blacker or the greener end of the scale!
Turns out it was the blacker. My immediate guess would be Fujian-y because it reminded me rather of the Dawn only without the strong cocoa note. Of course Dawn isn't a Fujian tea, heck it's not even a chinese tea! But the Dawn is quite similar to the fabled Tan Yang Te Ji which _was_ a Fujian tea. This didn't have the Assam-y quality of the smoky note at all, but it had a certain earth-y dustyness that felt similar to me.
I think that's the same note that I've seen described as mushroom-y. I'm not sure I agree on the mushrooms, but I can totally see where it's coming from.
This is not a bad oolong. It's not an outstanding one either. It's very nice indeed and functional. Hit the spot just right for me today for example, but it's still somewhat anonymous. Just like its name. Come to think of it, what I originally thought was a pretty generic and non-descriptive name has turned out to actually be surprisingly accurate.
No grand gestures here, but that's okay, because sometimes you just want a simple, honest cup of tea.Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:16:59 -0400/teas/China%20Oolong%20(o)%20(OC04)/8978-china-oolong-o-oc04?post=42025
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sAck, I have the first niggling pokings of a headache. How annoying.
Only way to fix such things that I know of is to have some favourite tea. It's already getting a bit low in the tin again. Granted I shared some with a couple of you, but still... I think I'll order a bigger batch when the time comes to re-stock.
For those of you that I've been waving this one teasingly at, I just saw a review over on Teaviews.com today about a strawberry oolong, which you can read about here http://www.teaviews.com/2010/06/04/review-naivetea-strawberry-oolong-4/
Maybe it would be a suitable replacement when this one is only really available to people in Denmark or people willing to pay a fortune in shipping. Reading about the strawberry oolong made me think of this one, at any rate. Sat, 05 Jun 2010 14:37:29 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=42237
Russian Morning No. 24 from Kusmi TeaI got a sample of this at the same time I found the great big tin of Kusmi's Caramel. It was *Lena's* recent post about it that made me want to try it out. I want to see how it holds up to Kusmi's Samovar (which they also had a sample of btw. I didn't have to go to France to get that one after all, apparently. Except I think I'd still have wanted a full sized tin of it).
It's been standing around in my kitchen for a while because I wasn't really in the right mindset to do a first post type post. They take much more thought activity to write than other posts. (I'm also, as you may have noticed, currently spectacularly rubbish at keeping up with the follow list these days. Sorry about that)
Anyway, I pried open the little tin with some difficulty and took a look at the leaves. They had that sort of dusty black look to them and looked just like your average tea leaves. They had a nicely fresh aroma, though. Kind of Darjeeling-y greenish grass-y fresh, nearly. Kusmi isn't very forthcoming about the exact contents of the tin apart from black tea from these countries. Not even the district. So I don't know if there is Darjeeling in it, but it definitely smells a lot like there is. Interesting.
Due to the nature of the cup I can't really say for certain but it looks remarkably dark. Almost as dark as coffee. Interesting. It may have something to do with my brewing though. Lately my pattern has changed a bit in regards to steeping time and leaf usage.
The aroma after brewing is fairly far away from the aroma of the dry leaves. Gone is the Darjeeling-y character, and instead there's a very very sweet note. Honey-y even. That rather smells a bit like Assam or Ceylon of some sort to me. It smells as if it has been sweetened with a generous amount of honey, to be honest, but I swear I've added nothing to it. Interesting.
Okay, this is a little bitter, which again brings Darjeeling to mind. It definitely has a hint of overdone Darjeeling. I need to mess with the leaf dosage here, I think.
I'm pretty sure there is some smoke in there too, but the bitterness is masking it somewhat. That's a little annoying. It also doesn't taste even remotely as sweet as it smells at this point, but I think that's also there underneath the little mishap from above.
This definitely has the potential of being a really awesome tea, but I'm going to hold off on giving it a rating for now. I need to play with it a bit first and see if I can get that unruly Darjeeling note to step in line.
It hasn't turn so bitter at this point as to be undrinkable, and a dose of cane sugar helped _immensely._ (I have this nice sugar dispenser thing which is much easier and much more decorative to keep on the table than a bowl of sugar) With that sugar in it the bitterness is pushed way back and the other flavours are coming out to play.
There's a fair amount of astringency in this actually. (I think. Could also be I'm just thirsty) I can definitely pick up the Ceylon-y parts of the flavour at this point. Strangely the hint of the honey-y sweetness hasn't really been brought out by the addition of sugar like you would think they would. Instead they seem to have almost disappeared... Odd.
I don't have any milk, but if I had, I'd definitely have tried it with a bit of milk too. I'm certain this is strong enough to be able to carry milk, even if it hasn't been a little overdosed like this particular cup has.
Considering how it turned out once I added some sugar and the promises it makes if NOT overdone, I'm thinking somewhere around 75-80 points-ish. But without a better brewing, I don't really feel comfortable giving it a 'real' rating yet.Sun, 06 Jun 2010 03:04:34 -0400/teas/Russian%20Morning%20No.%2024/6466-russian-morning-no-24?post=42294
Russian Morning No. 24 from Kusmi TeaI've tried changing the leaf dosage and the steeping time back to my 'old' brewing pattern for this one. The new one didn't seem to be ideal for it. If this doesn't work either, I'll try a combination of the two.
It's still as black as coffee (nearly) and the flavour is very close to what I found the first time around. I think I've got the leaves right. I'll just have to try a shorter steep time.
Still not giving any points on this one. Not yet. Wed, 09 Jun 2010 06:16:38 -0400/teas/Russian%20Morning%20No.%2024/6466-russian-morning-no-24?post=42638
Bouquet of Flowers No. 108 from Kusmi TeaFirst time I had this I found it completely vile. Too perfume-y. Too flower-y. Too dust-y in flavour and all together too grandmother-y.
*__Morgana__* had it recently though, and didn't find it nearly as unpleasant as me. That would be difficult as out of all the people who have posted about it, I liked it the least.
So I decided that I ought to give it a second chance.
I still think it smells like a flower-scented soap, though.
It's still pretty flower-y too. _eyes it_ And it's still a bit like drinking soap water.
I dunno...
If I can make it through the cup without going blergh! and dumping it, I'll lift the rating a bit and possibly manage to somehow finish off the sample tin. If I can't I'll call it a loss and will either -foist it upon- give it away to someone else or get rid of the rest of the leaves.
Either way, I already have something FAR BETTER lined up to wash it out with.
*ETA:* I think I've worked it out. I admit it, I'm eating sweets while drinking this. Foam sweets, which apparently seems to be my preferred sort at the moment (normally I'm a licorice girl), so my tongue is more or less comatose with sugar. And taking a sip right after the sweets really removed a lot of the flower-y unpleasantness! AHA! So I added some cane sugar to the cup, and while it's not a fix-all solution, it helps some.Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:09:29 -0400/teas/Bouquet%20of%20Flowers%20No.%20108/592-bouquet-of-flowers-no-108?post=42657
Lemon Oolong (FO01) from Nothing But TeaI made it all the way through the flower-y soap water, although I changed my mind about a new rating, but I still think I deserve the reward/compensation that I had lined up.
For one thing, to remove the aforementioned from my tongue's memory, for another thing to be able to cross one more sample off the Lockdown List of DOOM but mostly to see if it really _was_ that good.
I remember it as almost otherworld-y nommy. But can anything _really_ be that awesome?
Can it?
The answer is a resounding YES!
It's so nice and fresh. Perky even. And it's every bit as yummy as the infamous raspberry oolong, which is pretty much the standard I hold all flavoured oolong up to. Well. All flavoured dark type oolong. This might very well be the green type oolong standard.
It's my perfect lemon tea.Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:05:21 -0400/teas/Lemon%20Oolong%20(FO01)/8983-lemon-oolong-fo01?post=42672
Peaches and Cream Tea from The Tea TableI got this sample from *Cait* along with the roasted Ti Guan Yin a while back. She included it at as surprise sample, but it's a bit sad because I don't really have the best history with peach in tea, but she didn't know that.
So it's been lying around for a while until today when i took it out of the sample basket all randomly (I moved all my sample to a big basket that I have recently. Lexitus think it makes it look like there are more than there really is.) and I didn't have anything else that I'd rather have so okay.
It's definitely peach and it's definitely cream. It comes as a sort of delayed reaction when I take a sip, the first flavour present being a good honest Ceylon. It's very round and very smooth in flavour.
If I had a tendency to like peach in tea I would most likely absolutely adore this one. But I don't really, so I'm leaning towards a somewhat below average rating. Which also feels somewhat unfair, because I can recognise that I _would_ have loved it if I had been a fan of peach tea, so that should give it some points too right. This is turning into some very complicated maths! I'll just give it a clean fifty and be done with it.Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:35:52 -0400/teas/Peaches%20and%20Cream%20Tea/8699-peaches-and-cream-tea?post=42983
Formosa Dong Ding (OT03) from Nothing But TeaI miss you, Steepsterites. I'm just finding it really difficult to keep up with the following list these days. Most of the time it seems like an enormous undertaking and I give up before I get started. But it's not just you, it's most things. I'm feeling old and tired these days and not really up for anything at all. Just your average hermit-moods, that's all. No biggie.
I wanted an oolong, and since I didn't have any specific preference as to type or flavour, I took a random untried Nothing But Tea sample. I _think_ I've had this particular type before, because the name seems awfully familiar and I knew that it was a green end one. I just don't know what I thought of it.
Previously with these samples I've used half for my small pot and my 'regular' steeping time and it's given me some pretty good results. I'm impatient to get rid of some of all these samples though so I can get out of Lockdown and have the collection a little more under control, so I decided to just use the whole thing, as per my newer steeping pattern, and shorten the time instead.
The aroma is a little floral and quite butter-y. There is a hint of newly cut grass in there. Maybe a little hay too, but mostly what I get here is a sencha-ish butter aroma.
It's pretty much the same with the flavour. I feel a bit like I might as well be drinking some green tea, one with a fairly good asparagus note. There isn't really a lot of oolong-y-ness going on. It tastes very very green. And it's making me contemplate that difference between green end oolongs and green teas. There isn't really all that great a difference, is there? It's so subtle.
Smooth. Very smooth. Almost velvet-y and it feels thick and viscous on the tongue.
It's good. It's tasty. It's refreshing. It has, I'm just noticing now as I type, a funky aftertaste.
There went that conclusion. You totally thought I was rounding it off there, didn't you? So did I, to be honest.
But I really want to touch on this aftertaste, because it kind of ruins the refreshing-ness of the initial flavour for me. It's sort of sour and clinging to the edges of the tongue a little like the taste of milk that's gone just slightly off.
If you can ignore it, it's a very nice tea. For me, I'll have to say that it's a very nice tea that has to be docked a few points for unsatisfactory finish. If it hadn't been for that after taste I would definitely have liked it better, and possibly lined it up for a purchase.
I might change my mind about a purchase. But right now I don't really feel like it. I've already got the TGY and I think that's a superior tea. Not counting the lemon oolong on account of it being flavoured, I don't really need more than one oolong this green.Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:42:34 -0400/teas/Formosa%20Dong%20Ding%20(OT03)/8532-formosa-dong-ding-ot03?post=42988
Formosa Dong Ding (OT03) from Nothing But TeaReminded of the lovely Lemon Oolong from this company, I tried a second steep of this one and added a little lime juice to the cup. Just a squeeze, enough to cover the bottom of the cup, but no more.
I have to say the aroma has turned a little dishwasher liquid-y with the citrus, and even though I didn't feel like I added very mouch I was still a bit too generous with the lime for my taste.
Apart from that though, it seems like an addition that suits the tea, and it has taken care of that aftertaste I mentioned earlier just nicely.Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:05:37 -0400/teas/Formosa%20Dong%20Ding%20(OT03)/8532-formosa-dong-ding-ot03?post=42999
Vietnamese Imperial Oolong (OV01) from Nothing But TeaFour more samples to go before this round of Lockdown is done! Then there shall be a Nothing But Tea order, I think. (And after that, likely Lockdown Round 3. I quite like this. I feel more justified in my purchases because it's like I earned them by finishing other stuff off)
To my knowledge I've never had a vietnamese tea before. It's a green type oolong and the picture on the description here is definitely messed up, because that's not a picture of a green type oolong. It definitely looks nothing like the leaves that I had. Unless I got a wrong sample which frankly I don't really think is all that likely. I'll look into that.
It has a very light colour. It's not really the same sort of radioactive glow-in-the-dark colour of sencha but it's something along those lines. A little paler, but something in that general direction.
This makes me wonder if I'm going to have another one of those green oolongs that taste more like a green tea and not really very oolong-y. (It also occurs to me that I seriously need to do some teapot maintanance, I just noticed what the spout's beginning to look like. Gosh...)
Now this actually taste of oolong. How nice! It's got a touch of green, but it's not completely without that slightly earth-y oolong flavour like the Dong Ding was. It's got a sweet note, sort of fruity, but all in all I've managed to get this first cup a bit on the weak side so I can't be entirely sure.
It's smooth though and definitely pleasant.
The second cup on the other hand has become a bit overdone due to me not drinking the first one quick enough so there's a goodly amount of bitterness there.
All in all though, if you imagine the mix between the first and the second cup, I feel I can come to a conclusion. It's a fairly straight forward green type oolong. Very pleasant to drink and probably pretty easy to forget about again, having had other similar teas in the past. Should you be coming to green oolongs and trying this one for the first time however, it might very well end ud being one (provided you liked the type of course) that you would remember fondly and maybe even prefer to most other similar teas. Mon, 14 Jun 2010 03:06:45 -0400/teas/Vietnamese%20Imperial%20Oolong%20(OV01)/8980-vietnamese-imperial-oolong-ov01?post=43163
Sinharaja from Golden Moon TeaHi, I'm supposed to be doing something else...
I thought a while ago that I had finished off the generous gift *Doulton* sent me a little while ago, but then I found this one in my basket. So forgotten and overlooked, the poor little thing.
The label says something about a caramelised finish, molasses character and ripe berry notes. That certainly sounds interesting. I'm a little concerned about the molasses there, as it sounds like something that might get a little overpowering.
It smells nice though. Berries. Check. Molasses. Check. Especially the latter.
It's certainly very smooth and not as sweet as I had initially thought it would be. The molasses is sort of hovering at the top of the flavour near the palate, making the mouth feel sort of nice and round, if you know what I mean.
On the sides, branching out into the cheeks I get the berry notes. As with the aroma I can't really tell what berries they are, but they are definitely berry-y.
Finish? Not really very caramel-y, I think. Not obvious caramelisation, I'd say, much more subtle-like. It comes out if I take bigger sips though.
Perhaps it can be brought out more. GM suggests adding a touch of sugar (and cream, but I'm violently opposed to cream in tea. Milk. Always milk. Cream is for coffee), so I tried that. I don't really count that as much of a success. The caramel-y molasses-y notes are too obvious now. I liked it better before.
I'm not completely blown away by this, but it's indeed one that ranks pretty high for me. If GM was a company available to me, I would consider a purchase. It isn't, though, and on the other hand it's not one that I feel I so desperately need to own that I find it necessary to involve anybody in helping me. Maybe if in the future I found another of their offerings that I also really wanted, I might do that, but not for the sake of just one tea that I could substitute with Kusmi's Caramel which is also quite lovely.Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:15:45 -0400/teas/Sinharaja/4397-sinharaja?post=43186
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch'sI've made a tough decision about a few samples I had lying around this morning. I didn't like them much and I wasn't likely to ever get around to finishing them off. So I finally got rid of them. It was a hard decision but it felt good and freeing to do it.
I need something to pick me up again after this, and as I have this morning caught up with the follow list, I'm letting myself be inspired by those who had smokies lately. I had almost forgotten I had this nice little Lapsang in my possession and when I opened the tin and saw how full it was I went O.O and then :D
Yummm the smoke fills my nostrils and make them prickle almost as if I was about to sneeze and the aftertaste lingers in my mouth as if I've just bitten burnt toast. And yes, these are _good_ qualities.
This newer steeping pattern of mine has brought out the sweet note a little more, I think. There is also a smoothness underneath the smoky prickly that wasn't as pronounced before. At least not that I remember.
It's _just_ right.Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:12:45 -0400/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=43685
Four Red Fruits from Kusmi TeaThere is a stranded fin whale near where I live so I went and had a look. Of course it started raining so by the time I got home again I was _soaked._ I would share the pcitures I took but I can't find the cable to connect the camera to the laptop. Oh well, you can't see much on the pictures anyway.
I have changed my clothes and made some tea and now the Swedish Crownprincess Victoria's wedding is on tv, so I'll just flex my royalist muscles a bit (No, it's not _my_ royal family, but it's close enough. The swedish king is Queen Margrethe's cousin.) and wallow in it. I _love_ this sort of stuff!
I didn't have a chocolate tea to have, in the absence of proper hot chocolate, so I had a bit of a debate with myself between this one and the caramel, but eventually decided on the fruity summer-y-ness. It seemed to fit the wedding.
So not really a post about the tea, but rather the circumstances in which I had it. :)Sat, 19 Jun 2010 08:44:04 -0400/teas/Four%20Red%20Fruits/6533-four-red-fruits?post=43696
High Grade Ginseng Oolong (OC03) from Nothing But TeaI've been struck down by an assault of sleepy all of a sudden. I think it's the long walk and then just lying around watching tv for hours. The crownprincess was very pretty (although the danish princesses, of course, are just a little bit prettier)
So I thought, I should have something to perk me up a bit. I was rifeling through the sample basket to see what I had and came upon the other half of this one. Ginseng! How utterly suitable does that sound?
I seem to recall it wasn't my intention back when I had the first half of the sample, but right now I'm wondering if I should order it. I _did_ give it nearly 80 points, after all, and if it can perk me up now, it should definitely be worth owning. Maybe.
Well, I wasn't paying attention so it got a really long steep. Not even the slightest hint of bitterness, astringency or harshness. Nothing. Not even close. It tastes like I would imagine it was supposed to. Now I rather wish I could have tried it with the entire sample at once instead, because I think it would really benefit from a stronger brew.
With getting rid of a couple of undrinkable things this morning I am now allowed to place my order with Nothing But Tea (although I may wait until after the 1st), and it's not impossible that I would have included some of this if it hadn't been for the annoying fact that it's out of stock! I haven't the foggiest whether it's going to disappear or if they're going to restock.
I think it's one to keep an eye on, either from this or from another company. Except Chaplon because I don't want fertiliser. See my other post on this tea for an explanation on _that_ one.Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:13:23 -0400/teas/High%20Grade%20Ginseng%20Oolong%20(OC03)/8818-high-grade-ginseng-oolong-oc03?post=43725
Phoenix Dancong from Nothing But TeaThis is the last dark type oolong I own, I think. The Bai Hao is sorta dark but not really. I feel that's more an inbetween thing as it doesn't look completely jade-y but it has a lot of taste qualities like a green one. I also have another one from Teaspring, and would you believe, at the moment the name of it completely escapes me... But it's a properly dark one and I took it with me to work. I expect that my boss will have used it all when I come back. (Note, I don't mind this. If I take tea with me to work, it's not so that I can have it to myself. If that was the case I'd let it stay at home. She has free reign over my work tin at any time. (Note to self, figure out what to have at work when I come back in a week)) But anyway that one had cocoa-y notes and when it cooled down it was a bit like getting a mouthful of watered down chocolate milk.
Anyway, no matter what it's called, I can look that up afterwards. It's what I will invariably be comparing this one with.
The leaves looked very much the same. Long and straight and nicely brown. They didn't have the same cocoa-y notes to the aroma though. After steeping for an indeterminded amount of time and pouring I've got a very strong cocoa aroma that makes me wonder if maybe this and the work tin are perhaps the same oolong type. This one seems more cocoa-y though. There's also something sort of vaguely fruity. No clue what kind of fruit it is, it's just a sweet undertone.
Okay. Ahem. A bit oversteeped here. Ah. Uhm. Ack. Eh. That gives it a slightly bitter and somewhat sour flavour that makes it rather difficult to discern what else might be there. A little sugar took care of that. Of course it taints the flavour but it's as good as it gets and let's face it, it's oversteeped, it's already tainted.
For a proper post about what the tea is like when brewed properly, we'll have to turn to the second steep. And I hope I don't butcher that one as well.
Still rather cocoa-y aroma, but the fruit-y-ness is much more pronounced. It seems a little watered on this steep which is kind of ironic considering how the first steep turned out. I think maybe the leaves are a little... overworked.
I'm trying to imagine a middle road here, and failing. What I actually do get in my head is that this is okay, but the one from Teaspring is better. Sun, 20 Jun 2010 02:58:35 -0400/teas/Phoenix%20Dancong/8472-phoenix-dancong?post=43766
Jasmine Green from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaThis is the last that is left of my A&D, and it's a little fun that this is the first time I break into this tin. I just haven't felt like green teas much in general and when I did, I didn't feel like a jasmine one.
But okay, this morning I was all in doubt about what to have and of course I'd already put the kettle on and the water was just getting colder and colder and made the decision for me.
It smells a little soap-y but not anywhere near close to the horrible bouquet thing from Kusmi, so I'm just coming to the conclusion that jasmine quite simply just smells like soap, the end. Okay, I can deal with that. And after brewing it's less soap-y and more flower-y so that's even better.
Now, I had a bit of a fail when I poured it. I just poured it like I normally would and these days I've taken to using a little sieve on top of the cup when pouring. So when I took the sieve away I noticed darkish clouds swirling around in the cup. What the...???
Either there's something dark and swirly in the tealeaves or the sieve is in need of a clean. I'm thinking it's probably the latter, so I've set some wheels in motion in that department. So yeah, the flavour is likely a little tainted by... something.
But then again this means that _everything_ I've had for a good while now has been tainted by the same something, so I'm not really all that concerned.
The tea itself, taint and all, seems extremely well balanced. There's a lot of jasmine in it, but not really all that overwhelming. Hands down the best jasmine green I've ever had.
(But green is not my favourite type and jasmine is not my favourite green, so...)Mon, 21 Jun 2010 04:06:19 -0400/teas/Jasmine%20Green/8406-jasmine-green?post=43827
Tie Kuan Yin (OC01) from Nothing But TeaOh my, Angrboda! What a great big huge order you just put in there with Nothing But Tea!
Erm... yes. I had reached the point where I was allowed to buy the lemon oolong and the orange pu-erh that I wanted and erm... well... things got ever so slightly out of control. But they're just samples! It's just... there's an awful lot of them.
Celebrating (ahem) that with the decupboarding with the other half of one my existing samples. Again I find myself wishing I'd done the whole thing in one go at first, because I really think I would have got a lot more out of it that way than I am with this half-sample business.
As it is it's nice, sweet and buttery. Not too green tasting and not too water-y in flavour. But it might have had a little more oomph to it if I'd used the double amount of leaf. That new water to leaves ratio pattern that I've got going on here is really messing with my old favourites! What I thought was GOOD may only have been good. (On the other hand, teas I found bad may have really been truly abysmal, so it's not a total loss. I must have saved myself some unpleasantness on that front)
It's been ages since I had TGY though. It's about time, and I feel like it's an old friend in my cup, even if it's not my favourite vendor. I think I'll take it with me out on the balcony and read some more. It's warm enough to be nice out there today when I have a blanket.Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:04:27 -0400/teas/Tie%20Kuan%20Yin%20(OC01)/8981-tie-kuan-yin-oc01?post=43852
Russian Morning No. 24 from Kusmi TeaI was inspired to try this one again. In my previous attempts I've had some difficulty in getting the steeping parameters right. It doesn't seem to be a very forgiving blend, and I have a strong suspicion that it's the Darjeeling that I'm nearly certain it contains that is mocking me. Indian blacks can be so stubborn sometimes.
I think I've got it right now though. The aroma is very sweet, honey sweet, and there's a subtle spicy note underneath. It's still a very dark brew, but it doesn't look like coffee this time.
Ah yes, the taste is much much better this time too! I think I said my original guess as to a rating would probably be around 75-80 points, but I think I'll give it a little more than that. As horribly bitter as it can get when not done right, as lovely it will be when it is.
There is an Assam-y/Ceylon-y note and there is also the one that I think is Darjeeling, but it's under control here. Instead of being overwhelming with the grass-y bitterness as in the two Fail pots, it's lying under the surface, lending the blend a little freshness. Perky, even.
I'm not really sure where the Chinese blacks are in all this. I suspect they're bullied out by the Indians and the Ceylon, cowering somewhere in a corner. There is a cocoa-y note somewhere in there, but it's not very pronounced. It's like a stealth note from the Chinese that doesn't really come to its right.
It's a nice blend if you can figure out how to brew it best, but given the amount of Fail it can be when not done right and how much experimenting I've had to do so far, I don't think I'd ever really want to buy a larger quantity of it. Maybe a sample tin now and then, but that's it, really. Give me a Chinese black any day. They're less finicky.Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:20:39 -0400/teas/Russian%20Morning%20No.%2024/6466-russian-morning-no-24?post=43932
Bi Luo Chun from TeaSpringIt's been a while since I've even thought of this one and *SoccerMom* inspired me with one of her recent posts.
It's always difficult to measure out the leaves for this one. They're all curly and getting twisted up in each other, so when you think you take a normal size spoonful, you actually find you are lifting a third of the tea out of the tin... So a few false tries and I finally got a couple of spoonfuls of acceptable size.
Grass-y aroma is grass-y. And very very sweet.
I was skimming over my previous posts about it. A bit like a cheatsheet, reminding myself of what I thought of it before. Apparently at one point I was searching for a peach note. And there was the mint-y aftertaste.
Mint-y aftertaste is still there, making the edges of my tongue feel a bit cool. Peaches? Hmmm... Maybe. I think now I know what the peach-y note is, or rather which flavour is supposed to be the peach-y note. I'm not sure I really agree on _peaches_ though. Maybe a little more apricot-y, I think, if I _have_ to pick a fruit.
It's just not a note that says 'fruit' to me. I find it more blossom-y to be honest. Not jasmine, not even close to jasmine, but the same sort of flower-y feel. I don't know enough about how different flowers used in tea taste like so I can't really get any closer than that.
It actually reminds me of that Dong Ding oolong from Nothing But Tea I had a few days ago, the one that I thought was way too green in flavour and not at all sufficiently oolong-y. This is just a slightly greener version of that. Weird then that I like this one so much and didn't really care much for the oolong on account of it being too like this... Chalk that up to me wanting my oolongs to be oolong-y! That's not a lot to ask, is it?
And would you know! The area of origin for this one is Dong Ting in the Jiang Su Province. Does anybody know where Dong Ding oolong is produced? Names can cheat but I've got a strong suspicion here. Am I right?Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:45:01 -0400/teas/Bi%20Luo%20Chun/8710-bi-luo-chun?post=43935
Samovar from Kusmi TeaHalf a cup of this. Forgotten. Lukewarm now. Not really very nice in this state.
What a shame. What a waste. Bottom's beginning to show in the tin.
It's time to start trying to figure out if it's a restock or not. If I were to restock I would have to order it online and it's a long wait before it would get here. And then I might as well shop around in some of their other smokies.
I think it's a bit like the Russian Morning. It's good, I might get a sample tin now and then, but a full size tin? Not sure. Probably not.
That shop where I got the great big tin of Kusmi's Caramel.... They had a ton of Kusmi sample tins. I should have a rifle through them one of these days.
(I am turning into SUCH a Kusmi fangirl! I'm getting a little ashamed of myself.)Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:08:40 -0400/teas/Samovar/11230-samovar?post=44036
Kukicha Hatsukura from SerendipiTeaThis one was part of the introduction to Japanese greens that *EvaPeva* sent to me a while ago, and I have to admit that this particular tea has been standing around in the cupboard being all neglected and shunned because I was a little bit afraid of it. For some reason that I honestly couldn't explain if I tried, I'd got it in my head that I wouldn't like it.
Then today I decided to try it. I'm not sure why I didn't change my mind today or whether there had been someone else involved with inspiration powers. I just tried it out.
The leaves look like ordinary sencha with some fragments and dust mixed in, along with a handful of bits of something that kinda looks like hay. A little seaweed-y in smell, but other than that there wasn't really much in the way of any kind of aroma of the dry leaves. Certainly nothing to be scared of.
After steeping it got that thick, fat slightly sticky smell. It was rather seaweed-y and a little cat breath-y, but that wasn't really scary either. I've come to expect that from greens. Especially japanese greens. It was light green-ish in colour, a bit murky and honestly not really very appetising looking. I assume it must have something to do with dust-y fragment-y bits. So maybe not the most pleasant sight or scent in the whole world, but nothing out of the ordinary and nothing really to be nervous about.
(And no, I do not believe that matcha has been added to it. At least not on purpose. It doesn't look like stuff that has had real matcha added to it, it looks more like the sort of dust and fragments you find at the bottom of the tin. Besides it doesn't say anywhere that I can find that there should be matcha in it, and I don't really think that would be something you _wouldn't_ mention.)
It's supposed to be stems and twigs and what not and it's not really supposed to have hay in it (right?), but it does taste a little hay-y. It's got a bit of a bite to it, right at the back of the throat. A green flavour but a slightly darker tasting green. Not darker as in fermented, but darker as in... _daaaaaarker._ Less bright. Less sparky. Less I-Am-A-Lovely-Spring-Day-Come-Smell-My-Flowers-Yay!-y
I think maybe kukicha is to greens what smokies are to blacks. Green tea for grown ups.
I like it.
I did a second steep too and that's even greener. The aroma is a little less in-your-face-y but other than that it's the same. Apart from it looking, you know, extremely very green.
The taste seems a little toned down here and loosing some of that _daaaaaarkness_ that I liked in the first steep. It's a bit more normal sencha-y here. Apart, you know, from the filthy-looking colour.
I like it, but I definitely liked it best the first time around.Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:36:27 -0400/teas/Kukicha%20Hatsukura/10318-kukicha-hatsukura?post=44057
Troika from Kusmi TeaWhat's this about an earthquake in Canada? Should we be concerned about our canadian steepsterites?
Anyway, I asked the boyfriend what tea we were having as I couldn't really decide, and he was having Earl Grey. I don't have any real EGs at the moment, but I have some of the Russian Kusmis. That's close enough.
I picked this one because it's one that has been largely overlooked in my sample basket, to the point of me actually being surprised at how full the sample tin still was.
(...and making tea is quicker if one turns the kettle on. Right.)
I can pick up the bergamot in the leaves as usual. It IS a fairly easy note to find. But today I'm also getting the mandarin quite clearly. That's new, I couldn't fully discern that before. Not sure about the orange there. I _think_ I can find it, but I'm not entirely certain.
Tastewise it's the same as before. The bergamot is laying down a solid foundation and on top of that the orange and mandarin keeping the brightness levels up. I'm getting the orange quite clearly here. Less so the mandarin.Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:41:06 -0400/teas/Troika/7683-troika?post=44087
Irish Morning Tea from A C Perch'sGood morning steepsterites.
This is breakfast. That is all.
(Also, I don't think I'm using _quite_ the same leaf to water ratio as A C Perch's do. They recommend steeping for six minutes. I usually do around three. My tongue just _shrivelled up and died_ at the thought of six!)Thu, 24 Jun 2010 03:09:51 -0400/teas/Irish%20Morning%20Tea/10092-irish-morning-tea?post=44129
Ratnapura FOP (BS03) from Nothing But TeaOh my gosh, ginormous order from Nothing But Tea arrived this morning. That was quick, I only just got the email that it had shipped day before yesterday. It was quite a O.o moment when the postman rang my doorbell because I wasn't expecting it for another week.
So yes, I have orange pu-erh and lemon oolong and milky oolong which I unfortunately couldn't get in sample-size. So now I'm hoping I'll like it, or I've got some 100g of tea to get rid of. Oh yes, and then there were the samples... Three I picked myself and their black sampler box. So that's a total of 30 samples. Yes. Thankfully the black sampler box was only their unflavoured black. If flavoured black had been included also... Oh dear. I dare not think too much about that.
So I've spent an hour or so cupboarding. At least I didn't have to add more than three of them to the database, but I did have correct the majority of them. NBTs labels on their sample bags do not bear exactly the same names as they do on their website! The person who added them to the database used the names as they appear on the website, which is propably also more correct because they're more detailed and contain leaf grade and such. But they didn't include the reference number in the name, which meant that I had some small doubts and confusion on some of them and had to look them up on NBTs site to see if they were the same ones or not. So I added the reference number to the lot of them, which should take care of that problem. I totally worked out their reference number system though! First letter is the type; B for black, second letter is country of origin; S for Sri Lanka. And then they're just numbered consecutively. HA! I'm a genious, me.
The Chinese selection is woefully small, but there are a couple of South American ones and other asian countries. Oh yes, and a lot of Ceylon and a whole lot of Indian.
Didn't know what to try first, so I took this one by luck of the draw. I just cupboarded it, now I can decupboard it again. One wonders why I bothered. ;)
I can't say I have much experience with Ceylons. (Why do we stubbornly cling to Ceylon when it comes to tea? The island's name is Sri Lanka. It has been for more years than I have been alive. What's so special about tea that we don't say 'a Sri Lankan tea'?) I've found a nugget of gold here and there, but mostly it hasn't really been something that gave all that many bleeps on my radar.
They're a stupid size for my pot, these 10g bags. Not enough for two properly brewed pots, so saving some wouldn't do any good, and kinda too much for one pot. I have plenty of pots to choose from, just not one of a suitable size. Big pots and small pots, but not really any in-between size pots. Made it a shorter steep than I normally would and crossed my fingers.
And OH HALP!!! This is very dark to look at. Oh no, I think I messed it up after all. I'm afraid to try it! O.O My tongue is going "noooo don't WANNA!" But there's nothing to be done about it, is there?
I quite like the aroma of it. It's very sweet, but not honey-y sweet. More sweet berry-y. Strawberries with milk and a sprinkle of sugar on them. Ice cream-y, bizarrely enough. Perhaps even borderline caramel-y. What a very awesome smell! At least 50 points for the aroma alone.
It's not that overdone, actually. It's extremely smooth and tastes as if there must certainly be milk in it. It has that thick dairy-y note at the bottom of the flavour. A good foundation for something this strong, I think. And it _is_ strong. But it's not ruined. It doesn't taste like 'oh I wish I hadn't used so much leaf' or 'oh I wish I'd shaved another minute off the steeping time'. It's just strong. It has a certain astringency and a touch of bitterness that honestly probably shouldn't have been there, but they don't really mess it up. They just add a little character to the cup.
So apart from the dairy note what else have we got? There is definitely the sweetness that I picked up in the aroma too, but it's more dark here. Like slighly burnt sugar. It wasn't in the aroma at all. If I had to asign some sort of fruit to it, to go with how the aroma seemed fruity sweet I'd probably be looking at something like sweet oranges. Yes, sweet citrus and burnt sugar.
It's a strong tea. One that will get you up and about in the morning. I like it. Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:37:37 -0400/teas/Ratnapura%20FOP%20(BS03)/8995-ratnapura-fop-bs03?post=44227
Milky Oolong (TB13) from Nothing But TeaThis is a debut for me. I've never had a milky oolong before and I rather wish I could have got just a sample of it. Alas, since this is one of NBTs Tea Buff teas (I iz a tea buff! Hee!) and therefore only available to account holders, it was only available in 100g bags.
I was curious enough to get it anyway. Only one other person has posted about it here and since he a) was the person to tell me NBT existed in the first place and b) really liked it, I thought I'd go out on a limb.
I'm sure if I hate it there is someone out there in the Steepsterverse who won't mind drinking it for me.
So. Milk vapours, eh? I have to say it sounds really odd! How did the first person to come up with this come up with it? "Let's take some otherwise perfectly good oolong and give it an aroma of old milk. That would be awesome, yes?" Or maybe it was more like the way Lapsang Souchong was invented, when a merchant sold some smoke-damaged leaves to a dutch merchant, thinking the silly Europeans wouldn't notice the difference anyway, and then it turned out that not only _did_ they notice the difference, it was also hugely popular?
Whichever way it happened, we cannot get around the fact that these leaves smell like a warm yoghurt. Strawberry yoghurt even, which is a little odd, but it's very very strawberry-y. If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was flavoured.
After steeping it doesn't smell so much of yoghurt and not at all strawberry yoghurt. It just smells kinda like your average green type oolong. With milk in it. And that, I have to say, is not a smell that is supposed to work on any level at all. It does have a certain sweetness though (I feel like I say that in all my posts) although it's no longer recognisable as a particular type of fruit.
It's extremely smooth to drink. It's got a lot of oolong-y qualities and doesn't taste at all of dairy. Thank Ceiling Cat for that! It just tastes a little thicker than normal. Like it would be something that might be able to stave off a craving for something creamy and unhealthy.
I'm not blown away by it, but I like it. It's delicious. Just not in an OMGSOAWESOME way. I reacted differently to this one than I did to others that I gave this amount of points. But I still think it deserves this rating.Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:48:49 -0400/teas/Milky%20Oolong%20(TB13)/10697-milky-oolong-tb13?post=44238
Assam Sewpur organic (BI13) from Nothing But TeaI really just wanted something to sit with while reading or writing or some such. And by writing I don't mean writing a tea post. I wanted something I knew, something I didn't have to pay attention to so I could get some other stuff done.
But that black sampler box! Oh how she beckons!
So I took a random one out of the box. Or... a semi-random one. I first a second flush Darjeeling, but I thought I'd save that for later and have it in connection with the first flush from the same estate and see how much difference I could tell. Then I got one from Guatemala but since that's such a special place to get tea from, I wanted to save that one. (Then I got the same second flush Darjeeling again) And then I finally got this one. It was so randomly chosen that it took four attempts to choose it. Randomly. Yes.
I haven't got the faintest idea how to pronounce Sewpur. But it sounds like 'Super' in my head, so that's a good sign, I think.
I tried smelling the dry leaves before steeping but they didn't really have much aroma to speak of. If I breathed on them first there was fleeting note of something warm and spicy-ish and maybe a little pine-y. But otherwise nothing really.
It was the same aroma that I get from the steeped tea. Very dry and wooden, it smells. It doesn't actually smell like something that is wet at all, and that honey-y note? Completely missing. Gorgeous red colour though. This cup is glass, so I can really see it here. Absolutely lovely.
It has a certain dryness too. It tastes... dusty. Like I made it way too strong, but I used a larger pot, so I actually made it <i>weaker!</i> O.o It's not wildly astringent, or even all out astringent at all, but it's borderline. It's very woodsy in flavour. Nothing at all sweet here. Not even a hint.
I don't think it's so 'Super' after all. It's like it's missing something. The foundation is there, but there's nothing on it.
Oh well.Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:34:33 -0400/teas/Assam%20Sewpur%20organic%20(BI13)/9003-assam-sewpur-organic-bi13?post=44251
Dimbula OP (BS04) from Nothing But TeaGood morning Steepsterites.
I've 'won' another Ceylon in my random pick of randomness. It's a little annoying but I've changed my steeping pattern back to the old pattern of steeping, sort of, so that the sample sizes fit my pots. Oh well.
We were doing family things yesterday which means that I didn't get a proper cup of tea all day. Which also means that I didn't get as much fluid to drink in total as I normally do. Consequently a small headache is niggling at me at the moment and I haven't been able to bother to smell the dry leaves all that much.
They are leaves. They smelled of tea. And when steeped, it smells of tea.
The flavour is a little more easy to break down. A touch of astringency at first and then something berry-y sweet. (Yes, it has a certain sweetness) A little sugary-y and not hugely fruity but definitely a bit of sweetness.
It's one of those thick sticky-y flavours though. I'm not sure how to describe that, the way a small sip will swell in contact with mouth membranes and fill the entire mouth instantly.
Or maybe I'm just not entirely awake yet. I've been having strange dreams of strangeness lately. Who knows, maybe I'm still sleeping.
Having to assume I'm awake though, I'd say this was a nice tea, but not really something mindboggleingly awesome. It's tea. It's fairly straight forward. It would be one suitable for mornings in the travel cup or to drink while at work and I might even buy it for the latter purpose. Sun, 27 Jun 2010 03:27:33 -0400/teas/Dimbula%20OP%20(BS04)/8996-dimbula-op-bs04?post=44395
Four Red Fruits from Kusmi TeaI have somewhat reluctantly stepped away from the sample box... Not really in a fit state to properly review them, and also I needed something a little more refreshing.
In comes trusty Kusmi with a nice fruity blend. A little tart. A little sweet. A lot nice.
(Also, I have a new picture and wanted to show it off. Now I've got one that fits the origin of my name and I'm fighting the urge to turn large parts of my bio section into a history lesson...)Sun, 27 Jun 2010 07:23:04 -0400/teas/Four%20Red%20Fruits/6533-four-red-fruits?post=44398
Kenilworth OP1 (BS01) from Nothing But Tea*Threewhales* posted about a Kenilworth Estate Ceylon and judging from the amount of points, it's a favourite in those quarters. I remembered that I have a Kenilworth in the black sampler box, so after a great deal of dithering I finally decided to go and dig it out of the box. I'm still not entirely up to my usual energy levels (which admittedly aren't that high to begin with) but I'm feeling more hydrated and a bit less headache-y. And even more importantly, I was _inspired!_ So why not?
The leaves at first didn't really have any particular scent to speak of. Again, they were leaves and they smelled of tea. That's it. I tried breathing on them first and that helped a lot. I got some good notes of leather and perhaps even something tobacco-y. After steeping I'm getting a note that rather reminds me of horses, I have to say. Not in the same way that pu-erh should preferably have some aroma of cow-stable-y-ness, this is more like the animal itself smells. Or perhaps a little more abstract, it smells like the idea of a horse.
It's a little rough and scratchy in flavour. Like a piece of rough wood. At the same times there is that thickness to the flavour that tastes a bit like milk has been added. So it's a funny mix of rough and smooth at the same time which weirdly enough doesn't seem at odds with each other.
It doesn't really have a ton of different notes to it, this flavour, but then none of the Ceylons really have so far. They seem as a whole to be fairly straight forward. There is a hint, however, of something that I'm trying very hard to convince myself is not a coffee note. Coffee notes in my tea = DNW! Do Not Want! I'm trying to make my tongue believe that it's really a slightly distorted cocoa-y note because cocoa notes in tea = highly desirable. I can't really say that it's working, though.
If this tea was a man, it would be an unshaven rogue with a heart of gold and a weakness for the fairer sex. A muscular fellow wearing tight black trousers and a loose-fitting white shirt buttoned only half way up. Maybe he's even a pirate. Straight out of a bodice-ripper at any rate.
*ETA:* Dear Steepster.
_WHY_ are you refusing to separate those last two paragraphs properly?!
Much frustration,
-Ang.Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:42:05 -0400/teas/Kenilworth%20OP1%20(BS01)/8993-kenilworth-op1-bs01?post=44408
Uva Highlands (BS05) from Nothing But TeaIt's the Ceylon Sensation Day! :D Everybody's having Ceylon today. This is my third. The first one was a random pick. The second one was on purpose. And now a third one that I _SWEAR_ was a random pick!
I've had a tea from an Uva Highlands Estate once before and back then I thought it was absolutely mind-blowingly awesomesauce of fantasticness. Interesting, then, to see if it still is.
I'm not impressed with the leaves. They had a similar aroma (Oh whoever you are with a toot-horn out there, kindly stop tooting, you bastard! It sounds like an ocean liner has got lost and ended up in the city center.) to the Kenilworth, but they were teensy tiny. One grade up, it seems, from tea bag stuffing. I knocked a minute off the steep time on that account and I've still got a very dark cup.
Nothing really noteworthy about the aroma after steeping either. Somewhat malty, but otherwise, it's just tea.
Gosh! Taking off a third of the steep time was definitely not overkill. I could easily have knocked off another 30 seconds. There is a fair bit of astringency to this and it has that irritating coffee note again, only it's a little more subdued here. Like it sunk to the bottom. And then it just tastes like... tea. A bit dark and wood-y, but just... tea.
And again, that's really all there is to it. Another pirate tea. Rogue, rough and ready. ;)
If I had to choose between this one and the Kenilworth, I would say this one had the slightly better flavour, but I would still buy the Kenilworth because of the leaf grade. I'm really not a fan of these itteh bitteh leaves.Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:29:50 -0400/teas/Uva%20Highlands%20(BS05)/8997-uva-highlands-bs05?post=44421
Pu Ehr Orange (EP08) from Nothing But TeaYou know what, screw the sample box. The Curse of Murphy's Law has been upon me all day, and I need a treat.
This is, after all, the first DROP of tea I've had ALL DAY! And I've survived until dinnertime on only three bananas and a glass of milk, and before taking the train home, the best cafe latte in the world ever.
But it's still not the same as a cup of real tea.
And you know what? This tea was pretty awesome from the sample I had. It's infinitely better whne bought in a proper quantity. There are big bits of dried orange in it too, which I didn't see any of in the sample. I know they're little more than decoration, but they're still part of the overall impression one gets of the product.
It's much more orange-y now. I think it's because I'm also dosing the leaves differently than I did with the sample packet.
I would really advise all of you to go out and try an orange flavoured pu-erh. Orange and pu-erh flavours suit each other amazingly well.
Oh yum. I can't even begin to describe how much I needed this.
(Also, I went and bought some new tea to have at work (on days where I have time to get some, mind!) for me and my boss, and I went into a tea shop in the city where I work and asked her for an oolong off the darker end of the spectrum and she looked at me funny. Then showed me two and pointed out a difference in leaf size. And said something about 'half-fermented'. She has a tea shop. Isn't she supposed to _know_ that oolongs come in more than just the one colour and degree of fermentation? And that 'half-fermented' is a relative term? And is she really going to stand there and show me a 'Formosa Oolong' and a 'Taiwan Oolong' and try to make me believe they don't come from the same general area? REALLY??? I would have headdesk-ed but I was honestly too busy looking like this: O.o
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is just one more in the long list of reasons I don't like using that particular shop much.)Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:02:07 -0400/teas/Pu%20Ehr%20Orange%20(EP08)/8973-pu-ehr-orange-ep08?post=44517
Tippy Yunnan from Nothing But TeaI made a random grab in the sample box and got a Nuwara Eliya. I kid you not. ANOTHER Ceylon. I just couldn't face another Ceylon right now and I just don't think I'm a Ceylon-person much at all, so I put it back and made another grab. And as I did that, I suddenly knew what I wanted and rummaged until I found one of the three chinese samples.
I didn't bother about leaf smelling and what not. I was desperate, okay. But I can tell you that they were the prettiest golden brown colour that you ever saw.
After steeping, it actually has pretty close to that same colour. Perhaps with a slightly more reddish tint, but more or less the same colour. And the aroma is just wonderful. Not too strong, but with a very clear note of... of... of... of _China!_ I've never been to China so I haven't a clue what China likely smells of. Chinese food, I'd wager. And of all the chinese teas I seem to be leaning strongly towards those from the Fujian area and the ones with that lovely cocoa note. This doesn't have the cocoa note (and it doesn't smell of chinese food either, in case you were wondering *(Ricky!)* )
But smoke. Or pepper, if that's the way you interpret that note. Under a lot of sugar-y sweetness. Really, I suspect I might end up having a love affair with this tea, and I haven't even tasted it yet.
Oh my word!
It's Smoooooth, with a capital SMOO!
It's even got a little cocoa note in it! But no hint of smoky, though. It's not pepper either. It's _something_ but it's not one of those. Not really. What's a middle thing between smoky and pepper-y?
Love affair? Oh yes. You are going on the shopping list, Tippy Yunnan!Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:36:06 -0400/teas/Tippy%20Yunnan/8992-tippy-yunnan?post=44609
Assam Orangajuli (BI09) from Nothing But TeaAssam is one of those teas where I would really like to be able to find The Perfect Assam. Unlike Ceylon, which is just... Ceylon. Some are great, most are merely meh, but I don't really feel the need to explore the area further. Assam though... There's something about it that makes me want to like it more than I really do. And I think that's because I haven't found the best that Assam can be yet.
It was quite lucky that I happened to get an Assam this morning from the sample box, because I'm just exactly in an Assam-y mood!
I'm not getting much aroma from this cup. It's malty and reminds me somewhat of raisins, although that smell might be coming from my fingers as I have been eating some raisins this morning.
There's an astringent bite to this and it's rather hard for me to really pick up anything else. This is not the perfect Assam either. I'm not sure what's really wrong with it, but I can't pick the flavour apart and this is just not it. I'm sure it's a good tea. But it's not _IT._Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:20:02 -0400/teas/Assam%20Orangajuli%20(BI09)/9002-assam-orangajuli-bi09?post=44678
Assam Hazelbank FTGFOP1 (BI01) from Nothing But TeaAnother random pick in the sample box and another Assam. I might as well give up on the random picks and try to go through them more systematically, because they seem to come out in trends no matter what I do. I even had my eyes closed, for Ceiling Cat's sake!
I'm also wondering if maybe I ought to try and figure out where these estates are located more specifically. I mean, yeah, they're all from Assam, but I'm thinking about stuff like how high or low grown they are and whether or not that might be something that makes a difference for me. I'm just not really sure where to start with such an undertaking though, so I'm just going to go through them as usual and then maybe figure all this stuff out afterwards. Perhaps there will be a pattern.
The description from NBT sure sounds promising! But then they always say that sort of stuff, don't they? I tried looking at what people had said about Hazelbank from other companies, but I didn't really find anything super-helpful there either.
This one has more aroma than the Orangajuli. The same maltyness but stronger. It smells blacker. There's a wooden note too, and wait a minute, raisins! Raisins again? Then the raisin note in the Orangajuli probably didn't come from my breakfast after all. It's just a touch, but I do think there is one. How kind of bizarre... Yes, this is weird to me when I'm perfectly happy to accept a naturally occurring cocoa note. Go figure.
The flavour is completely different from Orangajuli. This one has the same astringent bite, but the flavour itself is stronger and more sort of wooden. I want to say oaky and sound pretentious, but I can't honestly say that I know what different sorts of wood tastes like. So, it's wooden.
I like this better than the Orangajuli, but given the fact that this has a stronger flavour... No, that's not right. Given the fact that this has _more_ flavour than Orangajuli, I'm not really surprised. The astringency is biting a little harder here, but that's not really a bad thing.
This is better, but it's still not _IT_.Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:13:23 -0400/teas/Assam%20Hazelbank%20FTGFOP1%20(BI01)/9000-assam-hazelbank-ftgfop1-bi01?post=44714
Milky Oolong (TB13) from Nothing But TeaToday it was a craving for something a bit fresher than the blacks of the sampler box. Something with a little more perky to it.
So therefore I pick the tea that smells of warm strawberry yoghurt. No my mind doesn't make sense to me either.
Still. It's fresher than Indian blacks.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll take my tea and find my book. I had to get off the train this afternoon just at a really exciting spot! O.oThu, 01 Jul 2010 12:44:11 -0400/teas/Milky%20Oolong%20(TB13)/10697-milky-oolong-tb13?post=44805
Taiwan Oolong from Hans & GretheWe are drinking this at work now, my boss and me. We just polished of the Da Hong Pao yesterday and she's like me and loving the cocoa-y notes. (Also, Fujian Province. I knew it) So we decided to get another oolong to have at work. I don't really have anything at home that would be work-suitable at the moment, so I went to this tea shop in the city where I work and bought this.
I am not a fan of said shop and I only use it when in dire need, like for example not having any tea to drink at work the next day and not being able to make it back to own city and proper tea shop before they close. So I didn't really have a choice!
And that's when it happened, that incident I wrote about the other day and I made a random choice of this one over the supposedly wildly different _Formosa_ oolong that looked and smelled exactly the same. Cause... you know... Formosa and Taiwan? Totally not the same thing. Apparently.
That shop disappoints me every. Single. Time.
And the tea itself, I'm afraid isn't really that much of a change.
It seems to be less fermented than the Da Hong Pao and the dry leaves didn't have any of that cocoa-y quality that I'm beginning to suspect is a more or less uniquely Fujian-y quality (what do you think?), a freak coincidense when it shows up in other teas. This was more vegetative and grassy, which made it smell a bit more perky, but I really missed that cocoa note.
After steeping I thought I got a small under-note of cocoa, but the aroma was more or less the same as before. A little difficult to pick up though. My boss said she mainly just got nose-fulls of steam.
In the flavour the cocoa was still absent. As was most other flavour. It had a grassy taste at first, but no aftertaste to speak off. It was like, at first you got the grass note and then expected some more _body_ and got a mouthful of nothing. Not even a hint of an aftertaste. Not one little bit. It was just gone. Very fleety.
As it got nearer to lukewarm, a weak weak weak cocoa note appeared, but not enough to satisfy. Especially because it took the tea getting lukewarm to get it in the first place. It's the same with the aftertaste. It put in an appearance in a sort of oolong-y wooden note, but it still took the tea getting lukewarm.
We're going to experiment some with longer steeping times, but other than that, we've got about 250g of boring tea to get through. Not bad tea. Just _boring._ I think I'll suggest we get a strong black the next time we need to stock up...Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:42:27 -0400/teas/Taiwan%20Oolong/13642-taiwan-oolong?post=44904
Lychee (FS02) from Nothing But TeaGoodmorning Steepsterites.
You hardly even made any posts at all since I went to bed. What gives with that? Are you all outside melting in the heat and unable to drink tea? I am. Not outside mind, because it's cooler in here. But other than that. Tea doesn't go down easily at the moment. Shame I'm not a bigger fan of iced tea than I am. I'm super-ultra picky with that and really prefer it hot at all times. (My lemon oolong might work on ice though. Thought.)
This was not a random pick. I went deliberately for this one because I felt like trying it and it seemed like something that fit the heat and humidity (Oh my word, I'm drowning!). Lychee is something that I get very very rarely. I love them, but shops don't often have them and when they do have them, it's extremely rarely that they have them at a price I'm willing to pay. Very expensive stuff in Denmark.
Some of you have posted about lychee flavoured teas before and there was that russian blend from Samovar that had hints of lychee notes in it, and it made me really really _REALLY_ want to try a lychee flavoured tea too. Thankfully, when I put in my NBT order, there it was.
Now I'm scared I won't like it.
It's smells very sweet and lychee-y! This bodes well, I think. I feel like I can also pick up a standard black underneath, but I couldn't hazard a guess as to what the base might be like.
Flavour seems a bit thin. It might be something that could be helped with a changed leaf to water ratio, but as I mentioned before these samples are just exactly too big OR too small to make the tea in exactly the same way as I normally make tea. If I use the big pot, there's too much water to the leaf amount. If I use the small pot there will either be way too many leaves for the amount of water or I get ridculously small and useless amount of leaves to save. 10g is a good size sample, but it don't fit any of my pots.
Anyway, a bit thin in flavour, but it's definitely lychee-y. It's quite tropical and nice and tastes like the treat that lychee in fruit-form generally is. Especially on the swallow and the aftertaste. It reminds me a little of Adagio's guananananabananananuave thing. The one that I only ever got a sample of becuase I had never heard of the fruit before and I was intrigued, but not particularly impressed.
Not sure about the base tea, though. I can pick up tea flavour easily enough, but I can't get any closer than that.
This is really nice! I do believe I shall put it on the shopping list.Sat, 03 Jul 2010 03:39:30 -0400/teas/Lychee%20(FS02)/13444-lychee-fs02?post=44948
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.Look what I found at the back of the cupboard! Did anyone say 'summerly'?
_peers into cup_
DEAR MY TEA!
I gave you a 30 second steep. 45 seconds as the very very most. How come you are so dark looking?
Suspiciously,
Ang.
Nothing wrong with the flavour though. One sip made my eyes go all roll-y and my face go all grinny. I've missed this one and I didn't even know it.
I need to do some experimental forays into other whites though. This is the only one I'm completely at home in. I've only ever had silver needles once for example, and I wasn't truly aware of what I was drinking then.
I think I'll take this cup with me to the balcony and finish _Gullstruck Island._Sat, 03 Jul 2010 06:32:47 -0400/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=44949
Lychee (FS02) from Nothing But TeaAs an addendum to the last post, I would have to say it's not a tea that is suitable for drinking larger pots of. It got a bit cloying towards the end there.
But this is not about that. This post is about a cup I poured and popped in the fridge because I had so much of it and I figured I'd try and see what it was like when chilled too.
I can't say I'm impressed. It doesn't really taste that much of lychee anymore as much as it just tastes of cold tea, and as I've mentioned before, I'm not a huge iced tea drinker. I'm very very picky with what sorts of tea I like chilled. VERY picky.
And this is just 'cold tea' with some astringency on top and a somewhat unpleasant aftertaste. If/When I buy this, I shall stick to drinking it hot.Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:44:01 -0400/teas/Lychee%20(FS02)/13444-lychee-fs02?post=44969
Darjeeling 1st Flush Margaret's Hope FTGFOP (BI03) from Nothing But TeaAAAAAAHHHH!!! Paws submerged in bucket of cold water = sweet relief!
Thus fortified against the onslaught of the heatwave, I decided to have some tea. I've been curious about this one for a while now because there seems to have been a conspiracy among my Steepsterites to make me try it. Or, at least, a lot of you said nice things about it recently.
Been ages since I had a proper Darjeeling that wasn't mixed into something else. I used to be infatuated with the whole concept of Darjeelings and immense prestige of the first flush every year. It had Speshul Factor. And then, for some reason, I just sort of rather lost interest. It wasn't that I had one that was sub-par, it was just that the whole thing puttered out of existance. Probably around the same time that I really started getting my eyes opened for the yummy Chinese.
The leaves had a spicy note. Almost like curry. That was a bit odd for me. Curry! Odd! After steeping it thankfully doesn't smell of curry. It has a rather thick, sweet aroma. There is a grass note and something quite fruity. I wonder if that would be the grapes that people keep mentioning in connection with Darjeeling.
It's actually not bad. Not so harshly grass-y leaf-y as I generally associate with the area. It's smooth at first and then on the swallow a slightly bitter touch of astringency comes in from the side and hijacks the flavour. It brings the promise of something unbelievably bitter if oversteeped, so it's definitely a tea that it's important to keep in check.
I was told a while ago that Darjeeling blacks aren't really traditional blacks, as they aren't generally a full 100% fermented, but technically a type of oolong. From what I understand the difference lies in the way the leaves are whithered. Knowing this, I decided to user somewhat colder water like I would for a greener type oolong. With that hint of bitterness up there, I'm glad I did. I think that would have been worse if I hadn't.
As for the grape. Well. I can pick something up that I'm sure must be what people identify as grapes. I'm not sure how grape-y I think it is, but hey, that could just be me. It does make me want to eat grapes though. I wish I'd picked some up when I did the groceries earlier.
And my body heat has already made my formerly ice-cold foot water borderline lukewarm. Gosh... Sat, 03 Jul 2010 13:29:19 -0400/teas/Darjeeling%201st%20Flush%20Margaret's%20Hope%20FTGFOP%20(BI03)/9004-darjeeling-1st-flush-margarets-hope-ftgfop-bi03?post=44978
Darjeeling 2nd Flush Margarets Hope (BI15) from Nothing But TeaGood morning Steepsterites.
This morning we've got another not-random choice. I had the first flush from this estate yesterday evening and thought I ought to do this one while I had that one in fresh memory. Then we'll see if I can tell a difference.
At least these leaves don't smell of curry. The aroma after steeping isn't that much different from the first flush. Perhaps a little darker in the grass note, but that's all. It smells a little more like what I tend to connect with Darjeelings, which I guess makes sense, doesn't it. If the first flush is all swallowed up by prestige.
Taste is a bit more what I normally associate with Darjeelings, but it still seems very familiar to the first flush. I seriously doubt I could tell them apart if you gave me a blind test or something. Again, a little harsher on the grass-y note. It's difficult to explain, it just tastes rougher and _darker._
It doesn't have as much of that astringent bitterness on the swallow that the first flush had, but I think that can be explained away by water temperature. I'm pretty certain the water was a little cooler today than it was yesterday. It's coming out more as the cup cools a bit, though. I don't think it's something you can get rid of completely, I think it's supposed to be there. But you can control the amount to a degree.
The grape-that-I-don't-recognise-as-grapes doesn't seem to have put in an appearance, though.
When it comes to the first and second flush, I don't really think I've got a preference here.Sun, 04 Jul 2010 02:43:22 -0400/teas/Darjeeling%202nd%20Flush%20Margarets%20Hope%20(BI15)/8471-darjeeling-2nd-flush-margarets-hope-bi15?post=45023
Assam Moran BOP (BI02) from Nothing But TeaArgh, I want to write! But I can't. I _can't!_ It won't come.
And this tea? Spicy, a little astringent, a little bitter, rather grass-y, and not sweet at all.
No, this isn't it either.Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:30:58 -0400/teas/Assam%20Moran%20BOP%20(BI02)/9001-assam-moran-bop-bi02?post=45031
Mayan Gold (FB13) from Nothing But TeaRandom draw from the sample box gave me chocolate. I added this sample to my order on a chocolate-crazed whim, and it's not until now that I'm beginning to wonder if that was an all together good idea. The chocolate bit is good enough, but I'm getting concerned by the 'Mayan' of the name. Every other chocolate tea I've seen on here that was named something with Mayan involved chili or spice in some way. I don't want spice. I just want chocolate.
The leaves smell like milk chocolate primarily, but there is also a hint of paprika there. I think. It might just be something that I think is there because I'm so scared that it'll be true. I desperately don't want it to be true! NBT's info doesn't say anything about anything else than chocolate and cocoa kernels though, so okay. That's somewhat reassuring. One could hope that the paprika-y note is really the tea's aroma being distorted by copious amounts of chocolate. It has lots of those little chocolate droplets that melt as it steeps.
It's got an absolutely gorgeous red colour after steeping, although rather murky, but the aroma is... weird, to say it nicely. Something that desperately tries to be chocolate but doesn't _quite_ make it. The more you smell it, the more you'll convince yourself that yes, this really is a full, rich chocolate smell, but in the back of your mind the initial 'wtf is this???!' reaction still lurks.
Well. At least it doesn't taste like there's spices in it. It's still way worse than the aroma though. Nothing in this could ever convince me that this is 'chocolate'. It's not full. It's not rich. It bears a vague resemblance to chocolate but that's as close as we get. It's got a nutty bitterness. Like hazelnuts that have gone a bit off.
I tried adding a little milk to see if that might help with the bitterness and bring out the chocolate more, but it didn't work.
Xp
It's not really a tea flavour. And it's definitely not chocolate. It's like a bastard child from the two. And it's NOT very nice.
This is not going anywhere near my shopping list. In fact if we had a Never Ever Again Ever! list, this would be marching straight into a prime spot. I have had a few things that were more undrinkable than this. But not very many.
Now get me some proper tea, plz!
(Also, *Sophistre,* I've managed 95 words, yay!)Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:07:50 -0400/teas/Mayan%20Gold%20(FB13)/13443-mayan-gold-fb13?post=45036
Lemon Oolong (FO01) from Nothing But Tea&hearts;Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:47:59 -0400/teas/Lemon%20Oolong%20(FO01)/8983-lemon-oolong-fo01?post=45038
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sI felt like celebrating with *Rijje* today. And for that we need a good old favourite that, to my surprise, it's been quite a while since I've had.
If it's been so long since I've had it, HOW COME THERE'S SO LITTLE LEFT IN THE TIN, HMMM???
Who nicked it? Fess up!Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:46:59 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=45122
Darjeeling 1st Flush Maharani Hills (BI08) from Nothing But TeaRandom draw from the sample box. Another Darjeeling of which I have a sample of both first and second flush, and by good luck I actually drew the first flush. It would seem strange to start with the second one. I'm neurotic that way.
I smelled the leaves briefly and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. They smelled rather like the Margaret's Hope leaves did, so nothing special to note there. They look the same too. After steeping it smells rather grass-y, and a hay-y sweetness. More than I recall the Margaret's Hope smelling. I'm getting something here too, something that sort of reminds me of grapes, but not actually smelling like grapes at all. NBT says it's flowery. I'm not really sure I agree with that, honestly...
A slight astringency in flavour, but also quite smooth. It's one of those teas that seem to have two different and completely independent layers of flavour. There's the astringent bottom note that seems a bit rough around the edges and with a good amount of hay in it. And then the somewhat lighter top note of smoothness and flowers.
I can't really come up with a lot of other stuff to say about it. I feel like I've said it all before only that was about Margaret's Hope. I honestly can't find much, if any, difference between them. The rating reflects how I feel about it _today,_ as opposed to in comparison with Margaret's Hope.Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:59:00 -0400/teas/Darjeeling%201st%20Flush%20Maharani%20Hills%20(BI08)/9005-darjeeling-1st-flush-maharani-hills-bi08?post=45200
Oolong Salima (OM01) from Nothing But TeaGood morning Steepsterites, and gather round, because this is one of the most interesting teas I've ever seen.
It's an oolong. From AFRICA!!! I have never seen anything other than blacks out of Africa before, and the vast majority of those were from Kenya. I can't say I've ever been all that impressed with the Kenyan teas. I don't really care for the CTC method because the leaf size becomes so tiny and difficult to manage when you brew with the leaves loose inthe pot. Flavour-wise I find them a bit like Ceylons. There are some real pearls in between but most of them just aren't what I'm looking for. This one is from Malawi, though, so I don't know what the taste profile from that country usually is. Not that you can really compare blacks to oolongs, even dark type oolongs, but you know what I mean.
It's a nice copper-y colour when pouring, but there isn't all that much aroma to speak of. What _is_ there, however, has a very nice and very clear cocoa-y note. Oh thank Ceiling Cat! There is another note in the aroma, a spicier one that I can't quite place. It seems familiar, but I'm not really sure of what it could be.
Gah, this is quite strong! It's got an astringent, borderline bitter bite, a bit like an Indian black that has been eeeeever so slightly over-steeped. It hasn't really retained the cocoa-y note in the flavour here, but it's got that spicy kind of wooden note that I couldn't identify in the aroma. I believe this is what is sometimes referred to as 'oaky'. I have no clue what oak tastes like, I don't customarily go around chewing branches of trees that I find on my way, but oakyness is the association that I get.
If this hadn't had that bitterness to it, I would have liked it better. I think I steeped it a little too long, to be honest, but it still tastes like it has some great potential. I shall give it points now based on this and then adjust it later based on later steeps. Starting at 82 points.
I would definitely give an african oolong a go another time. I'm not the slightest bit disappointed by this so far.Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:08:00 -0400/teas/Oolong%20Salima%20(OM01)/13445-oolong-salima-om01?post=45279
Razzleberry Green from 52teasSummerly, summerly, summerly... Hmmmm....
I lifted the Big Box O' Samples from Nothing But Tea, and look what I found underneath! I'd forgotten I had this one.
Smooth and butter-y and with yummy berries in it. This is definitely a good choice for summerly.Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:00:51 -0400/teas/Razzleberry%20Green/1652-razzleberry-green?post=45308
Taiwan Oolong from Hans & GretheI wouldn't say I warming to this. I'm just getting more used to it not having a lot of flavour. I took the rating down a bit too.
If we could brew it with the leaves floating loose in the pot, I think we would get a better result, but that's not possible. (Well, it is, technically, but then we would run into some cleaning-problems afterwards)
In a way it's quite good for work. It doesn't have much flavour but then again, if there's nothing to taste for, I don't really have to pay attention to it either.
But we're still getting a stronger one after we get through this, I think.Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:30:57 -0400/teas/Taiwan%20Oolong/13642-taiwan-oolong?post=45378
Jasmine Green from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaOH MY CEILING CAT WHY MUST IT BE SO HOT???
I think I've worked out what controls my green tea moods and my black tea moods. It's heat. When it's hot, green tea seems more refreshing. When it isn't hot, it often seems to be a little boring to drink for me. When it isn't hot, I like the strength of a good black much better. Oolongs, they're sort of an all-round type.
It's hot today, so I turn towards green. This one, with it's strong jasmine flavour, probably wasn't the best choice but it was the first tin I saw.
_goes back to melting_Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:30:56 -0400/teas/Jasmine%20Green/8406-jasmine-green?post=45563
Malted Genmaicha from 52teasDecupboarded.
I'm still not really very impressed by this one. I'm getting almost only toasted rice and little to no tea. And then the funny malt-y bit that feels a little misplaced to me.
I'm glad I got to try it, though.Sun, 11 Jul 2010 06:14:55 -0400/teas/Malted%20Genmaicha/6498-malted-genmaicha?post=45624
Taiwan Oolong from Hans & GretheIt's hot as all get out here these days. Work was awful and my particular spot was, of course, the hottest place in the whole lab, and also, of course, the _only_ place where we can't have a fan going. (When you're dealing with paraffine sections 2 µm thick, the _last_ thing you want is air movement. All your work will fly away)
So yes. Hot and humid and sweaty and dreadful. And I swear this is relevant information.
I tried brewing this directly in my cup, since my boss is off on holiday and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to drink a whole pot myself in this heat. I was definitely right that we would get a better result if the leaves had more space, but hot tea wasn't really something I wanted.
So I had this bottle of ICE cold water (Half an hour or so in the -80°C freezer. _Just_ right) and I had this here cup with once-steeped leaves in it. Why not just try some kind of cold brew.
Okay, I admit the water was likely _too_ cold, but I wasn't really after something exquisitly tea-like. I just need something to drink to stay relatively cool and prevent dehydration and such like.
The result wasn't half bad. It didn't have much flavour, but then I didn't let it sit for all that long before drinking either. It might also be that it was so cold that it just didn't taste of anything anymore.
It was solely a source of fluids in the heat and as such it was really nice and I'm going to do it again tomorrow. If I had been looking for a flavour of _tea_ however, I'd have been hugely disappointed. But it was definitely more interesting to drink than just plain cold water.Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:51:51 -0400/teas/Taiwan%20Oolong/13642-taiwan-oolong?post=45719
Bolivian Rio Negro (organic) BOP (BBo2) from Nothing But TeaHere is another interesting black from the great big sampler box. I've got a bolivian green in my cupboard, and the company's description of that one says that it's similar to japanese greens. After having had a little foray into japanese greens, I found I agree with that. So if bolivian greens are similar to japanese greens, does that mean that a bolivian black would be similar to a japanese black if Japan made blacks? Oh, we shall never know.
Anyway, the leaves had a spicy note to the aroma which reminds me a bit of something in between Assam and Ceylon. I'm definitely getting a more indian-y/Ceylon-y feel from it than chinese-y. When it has steeped, the aroma suddenly acquires a brand new note. It still sits between Assam and Ceylon, but it's got that note that I'm wondering if it might be something that would turn out to be characteristically bolivian. It's difficult to pin it down, but it sort of reminds me of apples and pears, especially pears, that are just on the verge of fermenting. It's not a clear note, it's just an association.
This is very astringent! I think I over-brewed it a little bit. Apart from the astringency, it doesn't have all that much flavour. I am still getting the funny fermented pear association from it without it actually _tasting_ all that much of pear, fermented or otherwise.
Astringency and fermented pear associations. That's it, really.
I would have liked it better if I hadn't overbrewed it a bit, but I don't think this is something that would have held my attention for very long. Totally drinkable, but not really all that memorable.
Maybe, if my hypothesis is correct, it's just as well that Japan only produce greens.Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:40:06 -0400/teas/Bolivian%20Rio%20Negro%20(organic)%20BOP%20(BBo2)/9024-bolivian-rio-negro-organic-bop-bbo2?post=45905
Black Dragon (OT02) from Nothing But TeaDecupboarding. Another oolong sample where I initially only used half the sample but now know I should have used the lot for the best result.
I wasn't happy about this one the first time (it was a random pick in the basket). I was surprised by it tasting greener than it should what with it being a darker type. I notice now though that it's a Taiwan oolong, so I'm wondering what it's like in comparison to the boring stuff I have at work.
Yep, same sort of grass-y semi-not there aroma. Same mildness. I think it might have a tad more of a kick than the stuff at work, but it really isn't all that great a difference. This is not one I'm going to bother with again, at work or at home.
*ETA:* And upon checking I find, suitable enough, that I originally gave this 57 points and the work stuff 58 points...Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:28:38 -0400/teas/Black%20Dragon%20(OT02)/8982-black-dragon-ot02?post=45939
Bolivian Cochabamba (organic) OPA (BB01) from Nothing But TeaSo the first bolivian black wasn't much of a success. Maybe this one will do better?
It has the same sort of fruit-y pear-y aroma that the other one had, although this one smells more like pear-pear and less like fermented-pear.
Lots of flavour here, and actually quite smooth It does look like I really managed to damage that Rio Negro there. It still doesn't have much in the way of flavour notes though. It's just tea. Nothing bad, nothing exceptional. Just tea.
The pears are only there in the aroma and maybe just a teensy tiny hint of it on the swallow, but other than that it's a one-note show.
Just tea.Sat, 17 Jul 2010 05:11:24 -0400/teas/Bolivian%20Cochabamba%20(organic)%20OPA%20(BB01)/8468-bolivian-cochabamba-organic-opa-bb01?post=46206
Caramel from Kusmi TeaSplitting headache is splitting and I'm feeling generally poorly. Comfort tea is in order.
What better comfort tea than this? It's got everything. Sweets and tea and fluids.
I don't know if it's pure dumb luck or if I'm affected by the chocolate I was eating earlier (that I shouldn't really touch, really), but I'm getting caramel flavour in spades today. Not just on the swallow where it usually shows up, but all over the place.
It lost all it's frenchness somehow, but thankfully without becoming overwhelming. I don't think I could bear it if I got this turned into some sort of heavy liquid toffee concoction. Talk about abuse of tea.
There's a touch of butter-y-ness in the flavour too which is a bit surpr-oh forget it. I hurt and I can't brain any more.Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:18:21 -0400/teas/Caramel/5814-caramel?post=46226
Superior Keemun (BC02) from Nothing But TeaIt's been eons since I last had a Keemun, and then, if memory serves me, it was a pretty low quality Keemun. I've seen lots of people in the meantime classify them as smokies and I didn't really get it because I couldn't remember ever having found smoke in one. Not that I'd looked, but you know. It sounded like it's something I ought to have noticed.
This one though, a random pick, now this _is_ smoky! Properly smoky too.
It's reminding me rather a lot of my Lapsang, to be honest. It's the same kind of prickly smoke flavour, but it's smoother and much sweeter. This tastes like the Lapsang does when I get it _just_ right and hit that sugar-y note. Only much less finicky.
I've never tried A&D's Keemun which people say have strong caramel-y notes, but tasting the sweetness in this one, I think I know what they mean. If Kusmi's Caramel was smoky and a little more frenchness, then this, I think, would be close.
Chinese black has come through for me again. We have a shopping list candidate here.Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:17:37 -0400/teas/Superior%20Keemun%20(BC02)/1434-superior-keemun-bc02?post=46278
Darjeeling 2nd Flush Maharani Hills (BI12) from Nothing But TeaDarjeeling in today's random pick. What to say about it?
You might as well just look up any other Darjeeling from NBT that I've had so far, because all these Darjeelings are running together for me. I couldn't tell them apart if my life depended on it.
And yet, it seems that of all the indian ones I've tried so far, this is the area that sits the best with me. Maybe because of the dependable performance. It doesn't really matter what the name on the label says. It's a consistently good result.Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:25:55 -0400/teas/Darjeeling%202nd%20Flush%20Maharani%20Hills%20(BI12)/9006-darjeeling-2nd-flush-maharani-hills-bi12?post=46368
Pu Ehr Orange (EP08) from Nothing But TeaI'm so behind on my dashboard it's not even funny. _pokes it_ But I am still here, lurking a bit, and trying to concentrate on paying attention to what I eat so that maybe, just _maybe_ I might be able to fit into that summer dress I bought last year, never got to wear and now a bit tight round the middle.
At least there are no calories in tea. Cheers Steepsterites.
I'm on an orange pu-erh kick these days. It started a few days ago, where I made a cup because I remembered having heard about various slimming qualities and fat reducing qualities and what have you that it supposedly has.
Let's be honest. I don't really believe all that stuff. Yes, maybe it does have some small positive effect, but there is no such thing as 'Miracle Food'. It doesn't exist. The secret lies in a varied and balanced diet, exercise and overcoming the siren call of fatty treats, hence the calories... So called Miracle Food alone will NEVER do the trick. Ever.
I know tea in general contains a lot of great things, but let's be honest, if you eat right, you'll get them anyway.
It was merely a reminder that I had it in the first place, and now I'm drinking it because it tastes absolutely lovely. And that's the only reason. It's a relaxing well-tasting thing to drink and I really wish people would stop trying to turn it into a chemistry lesson.
Okay, rant over. You can go back to your cups now.Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:14:08 -0400/teas/Pu%20Ehr%20Orange%20(EP08)/8973-pu-ehr-orange-ep08?post=46555
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sMaking tea in a hurry before I change my mind again. I'm finally trying to get through what I'm behind on the dashboard and first *Morgana* had Kusmi's Samovar and I thought, "Oh, I should have some of that too!". And then I scrolled down a little more and *Rijje* had this infamous raspberry oolong and I thought, "Oh, I should have some of that too!" And... You get the pattern, right?
So I hurried up and made a cup of this before the confusion was complete.
The obligatory sniffing of leaves in near-ecstacy that this tea requires was a good chance to take a look at the amount of leaves. We are dangerously close to a decupboarding here. I'll have to do something about that post-England, I think.
Yummmm nommy.
_Whew_ 9! Days! Back! I probably ought to stop following some people and try to make it easier for myself to keep up. But I don't want to stop following anybody. Maybe I ought to have a secondary account with the smaller following list. Angrboda Lite. Nah, it would just get confusing. I guess I'll just have to do the unpleasant and go through my follow list. This is not working. (How did I avoid breaking my back on a ginormous follow list before I stopped trying to follow everybody????)Sat, 24 Jul 2010 03:04:49 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=46834
Formosa Oolong Finest (OT01) from Nothing But TeaGood evening Steepsterites.
We've been with my parents over night and I just got home around an hour ago. I am so tired now and in bad need of good tea.
Which makes my choice a bit of a mystery.
But I happened across the sample and wondered if it was as mind-numbingly boring as the one I'm drinking at work or if the work-one is a fluke. I haven't looked the exact details of what I've said about the work-one up, so this should be relatively unbiased by that one. I hope.
The leaves looked pretty much the same and didn't have much in the way of aroma, except a rather wood-y note. It gained a decent amount of aroma after steeping, but it's also gone suspiciously dark, so now I'm wondering if my subconcious made me sabotage it through oversteeping.
Anyway, what aroma it has gained is pretty strong. It's not as wood-y as the note I caught from the dry leaves, but rather more semi-fruit-y at first, maybe a little spicy and only after that the wood-y-ness.
Sabotage or not, it may have gone a wee bit past its prime, but not so that it has become bitter or unbearably astringent. It's just a little... much. Overworked.
The flavour is very Tea. And also very Oolong. It doesn't really have much else, other than that. It doesn't have any surprising notes of something that it has never even seen, it's not smoky and it doesn't hit you with a mysterious sweetness.
It kind of reminds me a little of the Darjeelings I've tried, actually. No wonder I can't even begin to tell any of those even slightly apart.
So no, it's not _as_ mind-numbingly boring as the work-one. But it's not all that interesting either.Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:51:59 -0400/teas/Formosa%20Oolong%20Finest%20(OT01)/8979-formosa-oolong-finest-ot01?post=46902
Rose Oolong (FO02) from Nothing But TeaSun, 25 Jul 2010 14:46:23 -0400/teas/Rose%20Oolong%20(FO02)/8984-rose-oolong-fo02?post=46911
Jasmine Green from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaWell. That was unpleasant.
I've been through my follow list and removed just shy of 100 people, taking me from 160 to 61. Many of them were people who had gone inactive, but some of them weren't. I'm so sorry to those that I had to remove. Some were people who had been on my follow list for a long long time, and people that I've connected with on other sites as well. It's not because I don't like you anymore, I just really had to do something because I couldn't keep up.
It annoys me that it's necessary, but I hope this helps. But I suspect that I wasn't really harsh enough in removing people. We'll see.
I need something light to get my feet back now, and this just happened to be standing there. I didn't think I could drink an entire cup, so I've made two quick steeps in the gaiwan and poured them together in a smaller cup.
It didn't really damage it, though. The flavour is the familiar one of strong jasmine and then something spicy-fresh underneath. It tastes rather chinese, really. None of the seaweed-y-ness of Sencha. Sencha always seem rather lively to me, and as far as I can tell, this is more sedate. Sedate, however, is not a bad thing.
I don't know, it fits rather well with this Yoga for -Dummies- Beginners thing I'm giving a go. Of course the cup went luke-warm while I was following the dvd, but it was nice to come back to. Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:36:50 -0400/teas/Jasmine%20Green/8406-jasmine-green?post=46981
Darjeeling 1st Flush Monteviot organic (BI14) from Nothing But TeaRandom pick this morning.
I keep hoping for these Darjeelings to stand out, to show me something different, but they're still all flowing together for me. The estate doesn't matter.
Although, wait a minute... Were they all this spicy on the nose? I don't really think they were. This one got three minutes, same amount of leaf as the others (well, duh. It's a sample) and same amount of water. In the same pot, even. But it smells a little overdone.
Quite spicy on the flavour too. Grass-y spicy, kinda. I'm not sure I'm really a fan of that. It tastes a little overdone too. Maybe a little jasmine-y, which is a bit odd, because nothing jasmine-y has been in the pot ever. Was this cup not clean? It _should_ be clean. Wait, let me get another cup. No, that's the same story. Very floral. Almost... soap-y.
I think the conclusion I'm coming to with these is that Darjeeling is all well and good on occasion but I don't think it's the Indian for me. I'm beginning to strongly suspect that there isn't really any specific Indian for me. There is the odd pearl here and there, but on the whole, I'm sticking to Chinese, I think.Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:09:28 -0400/teas/Darjeeling%201st%20Flush%20Monteviot%20organic%20(BI14)/9007-darjeeling-1st-flush-monteviot-organic-bi14?post=47117
Razzleberry Green from 52teasEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
Some of you may recall the fantasticawesome Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpring which has sadly gone out of their selection. I have never got over the sorrow of not being able to get more of it again ever. They have a fancier leaf grade, but I will NEVER be desperate enough to pay over $17 for 50g. Ever. So that was out of reach. I put it on my shopping list because a girl can dream, but I was never going to buy it.
With the power of Google Fu, I have discovered, I think, another place (http://www.teainchina.biz) where I can get it! At under $8 per 50g. And, it seems very reasonable shipping to Denmark. AND THERE WAS MUCH REJOICING!
Watch me place an order of at _least_ 200g when I come home from my holiday in August.
Therefore, celebration tea is called for. My eye fell on this lovely berry-flavoured green, which, less fortunately, must now be decupboarded.
Very fresh and berry-y today, with a more heavy buttery base underneath, which comes out on the swallow. That's how I like it best.
I like that the berries are there and I don't have to search for them, but they're not in-your-face either. They're even present in the aftertaste, which is rather awesome, I think.
The base green is a wee bit heavy on the butter-y-ness in the aftertaste, but it's got a really nice freshness just at first, so everything is balanced out.
All in all, a suitable celebration tea.
(Oh, and also, allow me to brag. I'm about 1.5kg smaller than I was 10 days ago. Another reason for celebration.)Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:02:08 -0400/teas/Razzleberry%20Green/1652-razzleberry-green?post=47124
Chun Jian Zang from TeaSpringI keep forgetting I've got this. I'm on a bit of a pu-erh kick at the moment, and the orange pu-erh from NBT is disappearing alarmingly quickly. I've put the tin away for now and will save the rest for later. But then I remembered this one, and thought, hey, why not? And now that I've made a cup, I realise that I didn't really much like it when I posted about it the first time. I'm hoping that since it's hard to make the brewings consistent with the leaves so tightly packed in the cake, it was a problem with the preparation.
Nothing wrong with the aroma, anyway. It's quite pu-erh-y and earthy. Slightly wooden too. But somehow the aroma seems milder than other pu-erhs I've had. Pu-erh Light, if you will.
I can't be sure because of the nature of the cup, but it looks rather more transparant too than what I'm used to from other pu-erhs. I suspect I may have made a somewhat weak cup here. As opposed to my other post about it, where it seems I made it way too strong.
Nothing to report on the flavour, really. And that doesn't mean that it's an average flavour pu-erh. That means that there is little flavour to report on, unless you count hot water as a flavour note. Personally, I wouldn't.
I'm not going to mess with the rating. 20 points may be a little low. But in order to dislike something, there has to be a flavour to dislike. Me, I dislike teas that doesn't have a flavour.
Supposedly tibetans can get ill if they don't drink this tea. Makes me glad I'm not tibetan.
Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:48:00 -0400/teas/Chun%20Jian%20Zang/8713-chun-jian-zang?post=47263
Smokey Caravan (BC01) from Nothing But TeaThe last of only three chinese from NBT. I do wish they would have a larger chinese selection! Maybe it wouldn't hurt to get rid of some of the ten million different indians that frankly all taste the same. But that's probably just me.
Anyway, I'm on holiday! Finally! Three glorious weeks ahead of me, ten days of which to be spent with low-level panic and underlying homesickness. Yes. But at least we'll be cleared up on the 'What if his parents don't like me?' question, which in spite of many many assurances, it's impossible to shake.
So we're celebrating today by remembering that I had a sample still from NBT and this one for their lapsang souchong, renamed Smoky Caravan. Don't know why. If it's just lapsang souchong, why not just call it... lapsang souchong? Renaming it makes me think it's blended with something else. But again, that's just me.
Oh the smoky sweetness. Especially that sweetness, actually. The aroma is all thick with it, like smoked honey. I think we've got another hit here.
It feels fairly thick to drink too, as if it had milk in it. It coats the tongue and the mouth, sort of guarding me against the smokyness. Sort of. Not that I need guarding, but it gives a positive addition to the impression of flavour. Not that it really needs any more positiveness.
This is rather more smoky than I had initially expected when taking the first sip, so I had a bit of an O.o moment there until I got the flavour sorted out in my mouth. The smoke is strong, but it doesn't seem to be lasting very long. It does build up an aftertaste, but it's _build up gradually._ I prefer a little more power in that department. Something that is also there on the first sip.
The sweetness is also a little funny. It's there and it's strong most of the times, but then on the odd sip it seems to be sort of missing. How odd! It's like getting half a flavour.
This is a very good lapsang, yes. But I think the A. C. Perch's lapsang souchong is better and I'm sticking with that one.Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:22:40 -0400/teas/Smokey%20Caravan%20(BC01)/8991-smokey-caravan-bc01?post=47420
Troika from Kusmi TeaDecupboarded.
This is one of those things that I like more and more every time I try it. I haven't fiddled with the rating yet, because although I like it more, I'm not sure I want to give it all that many more points. I think I put it a little high to begin with, so I'm only adjusting it up a few points this time.
That said, I have made it a wee bit too strong this time, but that was merely in effort to not have half a teaspoon of leaves left. It's turned out heavy on the bergamot, to the point where it comes close to overpowering the other fruits with it's dark dustyness.
If I make sure to drink it slooooooowly and in smaaaaaaaaall sips, I can still find the other two, though. Not so much the mandarin, that's only if I'm lucky, but the orange is peeping through as a fruity fresh sweetness.
If I just drink it at normal rate and sip-size, though, it might as well have been any old Earl Grey. That's a bit of a shame. It really didn't carry the slightly larger leaf amount all that well at all. Last time I had it, the mandarin came out in spades, and I find that knowing it can do that, I miss it now.
I'm not sure if it's one I want to invest in again now that the sample is gone. But I am considering it.Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:43:30 -0400/teas/Troika/7683-troika?post=47441
Russian Morning No. 24 from Kusmi TeaAnother decupboarding.
I still don't know if I'll purchase a tin of this one. I like it when it works, but it's too easy to make it _not_ work. I've seen they've got a tea called Russian -Afternoon- *ETA:* Evening too -or something like that.- I wonder if that might not be better for my tastes?
This is all together too Indian. It seems like I like Indians and Ceylons best when they're blended, not so much on their own, but this one is a little _too_ Indian.
When it's good, it's really really good.
When it's bad, it's _awful._
No, I don't think this is deserving a purchase. As good as it is when it works, it doesn't weigh up against the difficulty of getting a good brewing.Sun, 01 Aug 2010 02:35:31 -0400/teas/Russian%20Morning%20No.%2024/6466-russian-morning-no-24?post=47490
Four Red Fruits from Kusmi TeaIt's been a little while since I've had this one, and since I didn't really have anything specific in mind to make, I thought, hey why not?
Unfortunately I'm not sure how it's turned out this time. See, I was standing there putting leaves in the pot, minding my own business, as you do. Thoughts started to wander and suddenly I caught myself just before tipping another spoonful of leaves into the pot. In other words, I don't actually know how many leaves I've used here. It could be the normal two or three, or it could be four or even five. I believe the appropriate word here is not one uttered in the company of children...
Just in case I made it a really really short steep. Since the pot and cup are of a size where I can just exactly empty the pot in one go, if it's not enough, I can always tip it back into the pot and give it a little extra.
It doesn't smell like that will be necessary though. It smells more like I might be seeing a slightly different picture of the four red fruits. The strawberry is coming through with a sort of creamy-sweet aroma rather strongly. The cherries are also very obvious here.
It doesn't seem too fruity on the flavour though, which leads me to believe that I probably didn't use as much leaf as I had feared. It's more just a basic anonymous black tea with a fruity sort of twist. It's mostly cherries here. The other berries have either not have a chance to come out properly in my very short steep, or they have and are already overpowered because of the larger than usual amount of leaf.
I'm glad I didn't manage to ruin it, even if I know that it can definitely be better than this cup here.Mon, 02 Aug 2010 08:33:19 -0400/teas/Four%20Red%20Fruits/6533-four-red-fruits?post=47567
Lemon Oolong (FO01) from Nothing But TeaLook what I rediscovered!
Lemon-y fresh. Although for some reason the freshness is somewhat absent today. It's just lemon oolong today. No pizzazz!
What the H happened to my pizzazz? Give it back!
I changed the steeping parameters around a bit. 25% more leaf, 25% shorter steep. And I think therein lies the problem. I'll try the new steeping time again and then add some more leaf for the second steep.
What I've actually got coming through is the oolong first and foremost. A sweet oolong, rather grassy and very green tasting. Not as green as the Dong Ding which didn't even taste oolong-y but something along those lines. i can't get it any closer than that.
The lemon is more sort of hovering above everything, being there and giving freshness and flavour, but somehow keeping a little to itself. It's a bit like there's a middle layer of sharpness missing here.
Of course this is written towards the bottom of the cup and the tea has cooled off rather a lot by now. It may have been there when it was newly brewed, but I wasn't really paying attention to it then, being busy with the archeological dig that was my lack of filing system. (Would you know! There were _letter trays_ underneath all that paper!)
So did the leaf modification help with the second steep?
The answer here is yes.
This is the real good thing. The tea isn't so tea-y and the lemon is much more sparkly fresh. And a sweet-y-sour-y sharpness on the tongue, all juicy and lemon-y fresh.
It makes me want to eat strawberries. Om nom nom nom!Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:30:56 -0400/teas/Lemon%20Oolong%20(FO01)/8983-lemon-oolong-fo01?post=47659
Nilgiri Thiashola TGFOP (organic) (BI05) from Nothing But TeaA while ago I was complaining about Darjeelings all tasting the same and how Indians just weren't doing anything for me, and *Thomas Smith* suggested that I try a Nilgiri. I said that I didn't think there was one included in my sampler box, but closer inspection has prooved me wrong. There was one after all. So I decided to try it out.
It has a funny sort of aroma. It's very spicy, and maybe even a little bit burnt. Or a very dark sort of caramel-y thing. I believe I've heard people mention burnt sugar before, although I think it was about a different tea. But I'm sort of getting that in the aroma here. On top of that there is a funny sort of Ceylon-ness about. Overdone Ceylon, actually, which has me a little concerned.
Gosh! Astringent! Astringency times whoa! O.O It only steeped for a minute, how can it be this dry?
It rather tastes like an overdone Ceylon too except without the bitterness. The idea of a slightly-too-strong-Ceylon, more than actual ruined Ceylon itself. This is a strong tea, and it's got a LOT of flavour. Without actually tasting like coffee (thankfully! Certain things just shouldn't mix. Ever.) that's the direction it takes my mind in. Allow me to go a little out on a very abstract tangent here. It tastes like the bushes were grown in a field that used to have coffee plants (trees? bushes?) in it.
Apart from that astringent coffee-esque sort of flavour there, I'm still getting a lot of spicyness, but the burnt sugar has diminished a lot. Oh there's still burntness (which shouldn't be confused with smokyness), but the sugar-y aspect is gone. This leads me to believe that adding a little sugar might be good here. So I tried that, but it didn't really give me any sort of burnt sugar-y aspect after all. The flavour profile of the tea stayed the same and then just a hint of an aftertaste of sugar. I might as well not have added anything, because it made absolutely zero difference.
Underneath it all there's a fruity note, but not a sweet fruit. A darker-flavoured fruit. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what, but it's definitely something fruit-like. Sour cherries, maybe. It doesn't realy matter what sort of fruit either, becuase the two other layers of flavour are dominating it so much.
If I were to drink this regularly, I would have to drink really weakling brewings. It seems to me that I frequently find myself complaining that a tea isn't strong enough, but then when I finally find one that is, that's wrong too.
And yet, of all the Indians and Ceylons I've tried out of this sample box, I thing this is the one that appeals to me the most. It's got power and strength and a surprisingly complex flavour. It might not be over the top awesome, but it's interesting. And interesting is definitely worth a lot of points too.Wed, 04 Aug 2010 03:27:21 -0400/teas/Nilgiri%20Thiashola%20TGFOP%20(organic)%20(BI05)/8500-nilgiri-thiashola-tgfop-organic-bi05?post=47747
Prince Vladimir from Kusmi TeaAnother decupboarding. Soon I'll have nothing left at all! I am SO allowed to shop tea when I come home from the England trip of *DOOM.*
(And a completely unrelated note to those who have in the past contacted me via gmail chat. This should (hopefully) no longer be possible. See my bio section for new contact info if you feel so inclined.)Wed, 04 Aug 2010 05:37:42 -0400/teas/Prince%20Vladimir/2139-prince-vladimir?post=47749
Sikkim 2nd Flush Temi TGFOP1(BI06) from Nothing But TeaI've never had Sikkim before. I even had to go get out the atlas to figure out where it is. (Only to find that it said 'Indian state in the eastern Himalayas' in the description of the tea. Can't win them all.)
Anyway, my immediate expectation of this one would be something Darjeeling-like based on the fact that according to my atlas, Sikkim is just north of Darjeeling.
The aroma is fairly light. A little spicy and rather honeyed. That sweet honey-y note doesn't really fit in with my picture of Darjeeling, so I'm pleased to find that it might not just be a differently named Darjeeling clone after all
The flavour is UNbelievably dark though. Not bitter as such, but seriously overbrewed. And I only gave it one minute. All I'm really getting here is astringecy en masse, and underneath that there is the greenish pang of Darjeelingness. And that's it, really.
So far my impression of Sikkim is an overcooked Darjeeling. I am not convinced.Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:56:32 -0400/teas/Sikkim%202nd%20Flush%20Temi%20TGFOP1(BI06)/8469-sikkim-2nd-flush-temi-tgfop1-bi06?post=47835
Jasmine Green from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaAre A&D planning on releasing a new series like ever? Or are they maybe holding out until S3 sells out? Because there are still nearly 200 sets of that left.
I've only got a little of this left of mine. Who knows, maybe I'll buy a new set. But I do think it would be nice to see what else they might come up with.
I was actually really inspired to have this last night, but due to a number of personal issues that I shan't go into, I didn't get around to having it. I'll have it now instead while trying to muster some diet-motivation so I can go for walkies afterwards.Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:33:18 -0400/teas/Jasmine%20Green/8406-jasmine-green?post=47932
Caramel from Kusmi TeaI can't believe this is very nearly gone. Again. Only a little left to cover the bottom of the tin. And this is the 250g tin. Which followed the 125g tin.
So am I tired of it yet?
NO!
Now I'll just have to figure out if I can save money on getting a refill bag from their webshop or if I might as well just buy a new tin. Depends on what their shipping rates and such are like. Or maybe I just don't want to wait that long.Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:51:03 -0400/teas/Caramel/5814-caramel?post=47964
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch'sI'll be of traversing the Wild Abroads in a few hours. I thought something strong and heartening would be in order.
Well, I say strong, but this isn't really a _strong_ tea, is it? It's just the smoke that gives it the illusion of being strong. It looks, smells and sounds like a lion but underneath the smoke, it's sweet as a fluffy kitten that likes to get its tummy rubbed.
In a moment of distracted lazyness, the water cooled off a little before I poured it on. It's beginning to seem to me like no matter what the literature says, a large group of blacks, particularly chinese and flavoured, perform best in not quite boiling water.
Right here, what I've got is a mouthful of smoke and underneath a touch of caramel-y sweetness. Soft and smooth as velvet. Perfect.
Right. I'll go and start finishing getting ready. I don't know if I'll have computer access much while I'm away, but I'll return on the 18th, so I'll see you all then. (and yes, there will indeed be an extensive trip report available upon my return)Sat, 07 Aug 2010 01:30:21 -0400/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=48021
Vanilla Tea from Whittard of ChelseaBack at last from my holiday! I'm not even going to contemplate attempting to catch up with 10ish days worth of posts, so I'm just going to jump back into the dashboard from this post forward. If anybody posted anything that you would like me to see while I was away, please drop me a comment.
One of three teas I bought while in England. In York I was taken to a Whittard of Chelsea shop and they had this 3 for 2 deal, so I picked some. I hadn't planned for anything in advance, I was just taken there and uh... left more or less to my own devices for a few minutes, sorta.
I'm not sure how the brand sits on the quality scale, but I think it should be something above supermarket brands. (Lipton, Pickwick... I'm looking at you!) Not sure if we're as high up as, say, Kusmi and such. But okay. It's loose. They have a real shop as opposed to a supermarket shelf. That's good for _something_
The tea itself has bits of vanilla pods in it and it does smell like vanilla. It's not an overwhelming aroma, more like an added sweetness that definitely isn't sugar. If I didn't know it was vanilla, I can't say for certain that I would be able to identify it as such, but then again, I don't go around sniffing a lot of vanilla, so I'm afraid my idea of 'vanilla aroma' is a bit out of proportions with reality. Real vanilla aroma is not, after all, as strong as in vanilla essence...
So, yes. It smells like vanilla, and it tastes like it too. It actually has a surprisingly nice flavour of vanilla. Not too much but not too little. It's easily identifiable with the aroma, so if you can recognise that as vanilla, then you're good to go. (This is beginning to sound a little backwards and complicated, isn't it?)
I'm not sure though if it lives up to the vanilla tea standards of for example *JacquelineM,* though. You seem to be the resident expert on how this particular flavour is best done, but until someone shows me otherwise, this is good enough for me. Good enough, anyway, that when I run out of this one, I'll give Kusmi's vanilla black a go. I've been eyeing that one for a while and wondering if I might like that, since I like their caramel so much.
Or a combination perhaps. I seem to recall having successfully tried something like that before. We shall see, we shall see...
But anyway, back to the tea at hand. The base blend is Ceylon and Keemun, which at first taste seemed to be a bit heavy for the flavour, but after I'd got a little further down in the cup I decided that it wasn't really. Had the base been more delicate, I think the vanilla would either have completely overpowered it, or the whole thing would have flown away in a flavourless gust of wind.
I liked this. I can see myself getting very fond of it, actually.Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:46:25 -0400/teas/Vanilla%20Tea/5400-vanilla-tea?post=49078
1886 Blend from Whittard of ChelseaSecond of my english holiday teas, a mix of Keemun and Assam. Sounds promising, doesn't it? I haven't yet found my perfect Assam but I have very few bad experiences with chinese blacks in general. On top of that, I have this funny weakness for teas that are named for a particular year for some reason, although this is the first time that I remember actually having one. I just kinda like the concept, you know?
First sip had me do a double take. It was NOT at all what I was expecting. Imagine eating strawberry jam all your life and then suddenly without realising it you get some raspberry jam instead. You like it, it's lovely. But not expected.
It's got that particular Indian astringency from the Assam and all evened out by the Keemun into something much smoother. The Keemun has lost a lot of the smoky though. It only shows up in the aftertaste, but that said, it has a VERY nice aftertaste. Underneath it all we've got the Assam showing up again with that sweet honey-y note.
All in all, a nice basic black. Strong but not too strong, full bodied and with plenty of _life_ in it. Not half bad!
You know what I'm beginning to think? My perfect Assam does not exist outside of blends.
Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:06:59 -0400/teas/1886%20Blend/7786-1886-blend?post=49163
English Rose Tea from Whittard of ChelseaThe last of my three England teas. A perfect example of how my choice of tea is easily influenced. I'm not particularly interested in rose teas and I only have a little experience with them, but I was in England. It's called English Rose. How could I not buy it? Seriously?
The dry leaves smell surprisingly fruity and sweet. Like there's some kind of berry in it. It prompted me to take a closer look at the box. It is indeed a Ceylon and Keemun blend with rose petals in it, but it also has flavouring by something called 'jackfruit'. I've never heard of that before. Turns out it's the fruit from a tree of the mulberry family and it's native to southern and southeast Asia.
Excuse me, but that doesn't strike me as very English sounding. I'm just saying!
Anyway, that would account for the fruity sweet aroma. It's present after brewing as well, but not as cloyingly sweet. It reminds me a little of an average tropical fruit flavoured black, which makes me wonder how often it's actually used in tea flavouring. It would definitely count as a tropical fruit.
Hm. Not the best tea I've ever had, I have to say. It does have a good deal of rose on the back-end of the sip, but the stuff in between is just tropically flavoured black. Wikipedia tells me that jackfruit is supposed to taste sort of like a tart banana (how odd!), but I find neither tartness nor bananananess in this.
It's drinkable. It's even a kind of interesting flavour. But I wouldn't buy it again. I think I'll need a little experimentation with leaf dosage on this one.Fri, 20 Aug 2010 05:38:43 -0400/teas/English%20Rose%20Tea/3669-english-rose-tea?post=49268
Organic Bolivian Green Tea from A C Perch'sI was in the mood for green, I decided, because green is good for your eyes. I found this one in the back of the cupboard and it seemed fitting for the mood this evening.
Very nice. Very sencha-y. Me likes.
The real reason, however, for this post is to inform you that the trip report from my holiday is up. Beware it's image heavy. http://iarnvidia.livejournal.com/2960.htmlSat, 21 Aug 2010 14:56:04 -0400/teas/Organic%20Bolivian%20Green%20Tea/8095-organic-bolivian-green-tea?post=49386
Milky Oolong (TB13) from Nothing But TeaI have NOTHING to DRINK!
I was looking at the tins and nothing really struck me. Eventually I picked one at random. I haven't had this one in a while and I was a little surprised to see that the tin is only a third full now. I bought 100g! Where did it all go? I mean I like it but I didn't really think I liked it so much that it would disappear behind my back like that. (Maybe I gave some of it away... I forget.)
I can't decide if I want to reorder. The aroma that smells of strawberries and sugar says yes. But the flavour that doesn't have any strawberry or sugar in it says awwww... :( But then again all this is only when I ignore the fact that next to the strawberry and sugar aroma there is also the unmistakable note of old yoghurt.
I'm curious about the concept though. I may not reorder this particular one, but I might try some other ones from other places. Explore the concept a bit.
It's smoooooooth and a bit heavy for a green type oolong. But it's summerly, I guess because of the strawberry-y aroma aspect, and summerly on a very windy day following some very windy and rainy days at the end of august is definitely a good idea.Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:26:02 -0400/teas/Milky%20Oolong%20(TB13)/10697-milky-oolong-tb13?post=49696
Tropical Explosion White Tea from 52teas52teas order arrived today. Well, it arrived thursday, actually, but I couldn't pick it up until today because the post office is closed when I come home from work.
I've been looking forward to this order. Having this tropical blend again. I've said it many times before, but it was a total ambush. I just thought I'd give it a go because I was ordering a few other fruity blends at the time, and it turned out that of that order this one was actually my favourite. I definitely think this is my very favourite 52teas blend.
And now I have it again! I will savour this pouch. Or maybe just yum it all up in a couple of weeks. :)
And now while in preparations to have this one, the TeaSpring order arrives! With Tan Yang Te Ji in it! ARGH! Tea angst! What to have first???
I'm sticking to this one first though, mostly because I've already got half a post ready for it. (Yes, I do this. I start writing the post before I make the tea. That way I can concentrate about the tea while drinking it instead of writing all this boring intro stuff.)
Yummmm fruit in my mouth! The coconut is really standing out today and with the other fruits underneath. You take one little sip and the flavour _expaaaaaaaaaaaaands._
Explosion? Oh yes. &hearts;
Tan Yang Te Ji will have to wait a little while longer. Now that I've actually made the cup, that's not quite as difficult anymore. Because this is awesomely awesome, and I'm shifting the rating up a good bit more, based on the way I hugged the pouch (yes really) when I unpacked it.Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:58:06 -0400/teas/Tropical%20Explosion%20White%20Tea/10145-tropical-explosion-white-tea?post=49982
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpring_SNIFFFFFFFF!_
Oh yes, the wood-y lovely autumn-y aroma. It reminds me of dried pine needles, actually. A little spicy and a touch of cocoa-y yumness. I remember that cocoa note being much stronger though. It's coming through in the cup, but not really in the leaves.
In the cup, I found the funniest strong note, though. A bit like boiling broccoli or green beans. A sort of rough but green note. Weird thing is, I can only find it if I keep my nose at a certain distance from the cup. If it's too close I just get sweet cocoa, if it's too far away I get spicy slightly smoky woodness, but at that specific middle distance it's rough green vegetables with a little butter.
This aroma? This aroma _alone_ was so worth waiting for.
_SLUUUUURRRRRRRP_
Oh yes. I remember this. The initial very fruity flavour with strong notes of cocoa in it. There is a little smoke on the tail end too, but not too much. It will come. It usually showed up the strongest on the second steep for me.
I used plenty of leaf, water gone slightly off boil and a, for me, half-lenght steeping time. Good experiences were made with this method when I had this tea last. Bit expensive on the precious precious leaf, granted, but I dare anybody who's tried it to tell me it's not worth it. As a result I've got something that has a little astringency. Just a bit at the roof and back of the mouth, and other than that it's so smooth and lovely. Such a long flavour.
The smoke comes through on the aftertaste here, building up gradually as I drink, and the same is happening for the cardboard-y Assam-y quality. Little by little it's making its presence.
How I've missed this tea! I grieved and mourned when I used the last of it earlier and finally they have it again. A different year and a different harvest, of course, but this harvest totally measures up the other one. I'm turning it all the way up to a hundred points now. Like *Auggy* said, when I shared it with her, it just has everything as it is. Nothing about this tea can conceivably be improved. You can find stuff that is _as_ good, but nothing that is better. I simply can't see that happening.
It's _THAT_ good!
Now, if anybody needs me, I'll be in the kitchen drawing little hearts on the label.
(I can't figure out what people mean when they say a tea is 'chewy' because chewing a liquid? Really? That doesn't sound like something I want to do, but I've gathered they mean it as a good thing, so maybe this has that too.)Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:31:39 -0400/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=49993
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringGood morning, Steepsterites.
This is actually the third steep of last night's leaves. It's very very rarely that I have the patience to have the same tea that many times in a row if it's not because it's just going into my travel cup for the morning train journey where I don't really pay attention to what I'm drinking anyway.
That's how much I love this.
Third steep. Flavour still as strong as the first. And it's turned so smoky it's sending up smoke signals.
Really, I _dare_ you to show me a black that's better than this one.
Fu Jian province, China? My favourite tea producing area, hands down. I've also bought a small portion of the higher leaf grade of this one (and it cost a bloody fortune!), and one day when I have lots of time I'll give it a good tasting and see how it holds up to this one. Even in the unlikely event that it's even better than this, it's too expenisve to be a one I'd buy in portions as big as this one.
Those who are still searching for something to replace the now unavailable Dawn from Simple Leaf, may I humbly suggest giving Tan Yang a go? I thought it was similar, only this is better. If you don't care much for the smoky aspect, use a little less leaf (and don't steep twice).Sun, 29 Aug 2010 02:07:31 -0400/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=50034
Smoked Lapsang Souchong from TeaSpringSince LS is smoky by default I initially read this one as if it's been extra-smoked, and that I was about to really test the 'Smoke is good. A lot of smoke is very good' philosphy when it comes to tea here. A closer look at the site makes me think that this is actually just the standard. They have an organic version too as well as a Yin Jun Mei Souchong, which I'm desperate to try but the $22.30 for 50g made me decide that I could live with waiting a little longer with that.
The leaf aroma is certainly smoke! It's got a kind of ancient spicy note to it too, but it's primarily smoke. Sticking my nose into that tin is a bit like walking into a house that's been on fire. Not a harsh smell of smoke, really, but a heavy one.
It's the same story in the cup. It's very prickly in its smokyness, but the spicy note is much more pronounced here. I'm reminded of pipe tobacco for some reason, in spite of the fact that it's more than 20 years since I've known anybody who smoked a pipe.
Aroma-wise this one seems much harsher than A.C. Perch's LS which is generally my stable LS.
WHEW! They have not been skimpy with the smoke on the flavour! It's not as harsh a flavour as the aroma would lead me to believe though. There's just more of it. It's rounded out very nicely. Even bits of my mouth that hasn't even touched the tea itself yet can pick up the smoke flavour.
There is supposed to be the sweet note also, which I've just learned from TeaSpring's info is supposedly a note of a sweet chinese fruit called longan. I didn't know that. Interesting. Now I want to try and eat one. Anyway, it's supposed to be there, but TeaSpring's info also says that the smoke is so strong in this one that it doesn't come out until later steeps. With the volume of smoke here, I agree!
However, I do still feel like I can pick up some underlying sweetness. Sirup-y and thick but very very faint. At this point on the first steep it's more like the promise of that note rather than anything else.
The overall impression here is something thick and smooth with a heavy cover of prickly smoke.
This is indeed a VERY good LS and it makes my usual A.C. Perch's LS seem thin in comparison.Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:06:29 -0400/teas/Smoked%20Lapsang%20Souchong/11845-smoked-lapsang-souchong?post=50323
St. Petersburg from Kusmi TeaI almost didn't have any tea at all this evening.
Thoughts went to the yet untried new TeaSpring things and the rest of the Nothing But Tea sampler box. I'm just too tired to even consider writing a proper post, so I thought it better to wait. The samples only make one cup, but I wouldn't break into the TeaSpring ones without posting on the first try. Even if it was just taking notes to post later. It seems like it would be cheating, you know?
And then, after a ridiculously long time, I realised that I _could_ always just make one of the tried and true instead. So that's what I did.
See you later, Steepsterites. I'll go and pass out somewhere.Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:10:08 -0400/teas/St.%20Petersburg/4128-st-petersburg?post=50447
Bai Lin Ju Hong from TeaSpringFor the first time in weeks and weeks and weeks I finally get overcome by writing inspiration. I fire up the lovely Liquid Story Binder and dive right into the scene that I had been lying in bed envisioning that same morning.
And then my nose starts running. And my head starts hurting. And I feel _ever_ so tired.
In what universe is this fair? I ask you!
Luckily for me I still have untried TeaSpring stuff from the latest order, and weirdly the above situation inspires me to try one of them. In spite of the fact that at any other time under these circumstances I wouldn't have had the energy to even begin thinking about it. Maybe it's a kind of seeking out comfort or something.
As I've said before, Fujian is my absolute favourite tea producing area, and this is the only reason I put this on my order. I hadn't even read the description of it apart from it comign from Fujian. Just coming from that area carries a lot of weight with me.
I've read the description now, though, and it does look like a rather interesting one. Tangerine notes? Interesting.
The dry leaves was a surprise. They have this very Darjeeling-y green-spicy aroma. SO not something I associate with chinese blacks, and very unsimilar to the Tan Yang. This concerns me a great deal. I'm not a Darjeeling fan at all. (How I ironic would it be if my favourite Darjeeling turned out to not actually be a Darjeeling at all?)
After brewing I'm feeling a little more confident. The worst of the Darjeeling-esque notes have gone away and I can definitely find something citrus-y in their place. It's more orange than tangerine to me though. Alongside that, I'm also spotting something kind of floral and an underlying note of cocoa.
This is very orange-y! Surely this must have been aromatised? But no, it's a basic black. But the orange note is strong. And it is still orange rather than tangerine for me.
Underneath that a smooth sweet cocoa-y note. Actually, in spite of the initial Darjeeling scare, this is actuallyl very similar to the Tan Yang underneath all the orange. It has the same sort of cocoa-y note and while I don't actually know yet, having only had it this once so far, if it will display the same sort of multiple personality disorder, but it tastes like the promise thereof. There is a teeny tiny Darjeeling-y spicyness in it still, but nothing very serious at all.
All in all, it's like an orange flavoured Tan Yang Te Ji, but a little sweeter and a little smoother. And a lot more orange-y.
I'm not finding any of the semi-smokyness though. But it does make me wonder how an orange aromatised Tan Yang might turn out. It's not as good as the Tan Yang, but Fujian is definitely still not letting me down here.Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:21:37 -0400/teas/Bai%20Lin%20Ju%20Hong/14835-bai-lin-ju-hong?post=50613
Vanilla Tea from Whittard of ChelseaTurns out a bit of milk rather suits this one. It's all softened up and stuff. Very nice.
(And yes, this unusually short post _is_ coming from the real Ang. It's not an imposter, the real Ang is just feeling a bit poorly and as a consequence a lot lazy)Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:45:09 -0400/teas/Vanilla%20Tea/5400-vanilla-tea?post=50671
Keemun Hao Ya A from TeaSpringIs it just me or is Steepster responding really slowly these days?
Anyway, the finest grade of Keemun. How extravagant. I remembered liking the Keemun from Nothing But Tea a lot, but I can't help feeling like TeaSpring, being specialists in Chinese teas and shipping directly from China, ought to be my first choice when it comes to my plain Chineses. Or at the very least thoroughly explored before making the choice to go elsewhere. They have a couple of other lower grade Keemuns too, so there should be some exploration ahead there, I think.
The dry leaves greet me with a very sweet aroma and a clear note of smoke. A little spicy too, but mostly surprisingly sweet.
After steeping it's got a VERY sweet aroma, yes, even caramel-y. I'm reminded of all the Jackee Muntz reviews I've seen speaking of heavy caramel notes and glancing suspiciously at my cup. Might this be what I've found here? It's all thick smelling, like you would expect the liquid to be all viscous. The smoke note is still present but not overwhelming and again a tiny little spicy note as well.
Oooh! Strong! I did involuntarily give it an extra 30s though, as I decided to give my cup a wash while it steeped and I was too slow. I must remember not to do that again.
The flavour is surprisingly heavy on the smoke considering it took a secondary position in the aroma. It's all prickly all over my mouth. Underneath that we find the sweetness.
A sweet note with heavy smoke on top, that sounds a bit like LS but the sweetness is definitely different here. This is more sugary whereas when you really pay attention to LS that comes across as more fruity.
I'm not sure I would call it caramel-y though and the tea seems slightly bitter on the swallow, but I can see where it might turn really caramel-y with a little care and attention to steeping time.
On the other hand, I currently have a cold, so maybe my nose and tastebuds aren't entirely to be trusted at the moment. Rating is subject to change. It _is_ a very good tea and you can taste the quality, but right now I don't feel it's beating Nothing But Tea's Keemun Superior which I scored at 95 points, but under better conditions I might try again. Considering how much more expensive this is, at the moment I would prefer the NBT. Once I've tried it under better circumstances, we'll see if the rating will change.Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:08:04 -0400/teas/Keemun%20Hao%20Ya%20A/14836-keemun-hao-ya-a?post=50736
Strawberry Zabaglione from 52teasThis is a backlog. I apologise in advance, but it's difficult for me to write backlogs. Expect some jumping back and forth between tenses like a frog on a hot rock.
In the very beginning when this one was first offered from *52teas,* I wasn't really all that interested. At the time I didn't really need a berry tea, and if I did, I'd have chosen a regular strawberry. I tend to rather like berry teas though (with real non-hibiscus-y imposters in them), so I'm actually a little surprised with myself for this.
Then I started seeing some posts about it, with really good reviews and I started to wonder if my initial lack of interest might have been a mistake. Just as I had decided to definitely change that and when time came for me to place my next order, it was gone. Woe!
Luckily I was told that a reblend was planned so I placed my order and Frank was kind enough to set it aside for me until he could include this one (and until I came home from holiday, but that's a different story).
The dry leaf has an interesting aroma. There is strawberry and something lemon-y right at front and a creamy custard-y base underneath. It's very sweet smelling and very dessert-like.
After steeping it's just custard. Custard custard custard. Totally custard. There is a little bit of berry on the side, but primarily we're talking custard here. I've noticed this happening in complexly flavoured blacks. If one note is definitely stronger than another in the dry leaf, it'll be the other way around after steeping.
The taste is quite interesting. It's definitely strawberry-y but not overly so. I was a bit concerned about the heavy custard-y aroma. I like custard, but I'm not sure I'd want to actually drink it, but the custard flavour only really show up in the aftertaste. This is really nice. Not so much a flavoured tea as it's more like a dessert with a cuppa on the side all in liquid form. As it cooled, however, it developed a certain tartness which I could have lived without.
This is definitely worth some experiments. I think some additives here might be fun to try.Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:59:19 -0400/teas/Strawberry%20Zabaglione/12889-strawberry-zabaglione?post=50904
Long Jing from TeaSpringI was in the mood. On my second steep now, actually. It's been ages since I had any of it, but I was in a green mood, coming home from work and decided to make one that I hadn't had for a while.
Today, I like it well enough. Other days I don't like it at all. Some days I tolerate it but no more.
But today it's pretty good. Still, it'll never be a favourite. Too cat breath-y.Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:09:09 -0400/teas/Long%20Jing/6863-long-jing?post=51014
Heritage Aijiao from Red Blossom Tea CompanyI received a package from *Wombatgirl* yesterday and I'm just giving the first one a try today. I was going through the selection and this one struck me as the one that best fit my mood. I was actually wondering about a black, but I thought this was close enough.
I didn't look it up on Steepster before I tried it, so I'm really very pleased with myself for correctly identifying it as a Fujian tea.
The dry leaves had a very cocoa milk-y aroma. A really heavy one. It's not sweet as such, but it's very rich. If I breathed on the leaves a little bit before sniffing, it really came out. Liquid dark chocolate.
After steeping the aroma, is it tends to do with Fujian, I've noticed, turns a lot more spicy. It's still very cocoa-y but on top of that is spice and spice and spice. It's not identifiable as anything more specific than 'spice' but the aroma as a whole reminds me a lot of chili chocolate.
The flavour was what really screamed Fujian to me. It's very similar to the -Dan Cong- I had, this one. *ETA:* Da Hong Pao, I mean. Sorry. Edit ends. It has an orange-y earth-y touch as well as the deep cocoa notes. I used to say that Tie Guan Yin was my favourite oolong, and maybe it's still my favourite _green_ oolong, but this, _THIS_ is what I want from a dark oolong, and _THIS_ is better than any green oolong. Any day.
Being a Fujian tea, it's very difficult for me to avoid a direct comparison with the deeply beloved Tan Yang, even though this is an oolong and that is a black, but yes, I can see the similarities. It's the heavy cocoa that does it, and the tiny hints of orange. I'll have to remember to pay attention to any orange-y notes the next time I have the Tan Yang.
Fujian STRIKES AGAIN!Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:39:20 -0400/teas/Heritage%20Aijiao/12154-heritage-aijiao?post=51334
Orange Pu-erh (No. 841) from SpecialTeas*Wombatgirl* sent this one to me, and it is actually the orange pu-erh that started our swap. Or, well, it was my NBT one, I think, that did. I had a great experience with that one and she told me about how she hadn't had a very good experience with this one. So she sent me hers and I sent her mine.
The leaves smelled a bit... fishy. I'd like to choose a more poetic word and say 'ocean-y' here but I can't really stretch to that. It's fishy. The end. Of course it's also pu-erh-y and orange-y, but compared to the memory of the NBT (I ran out), it smells a little more old. Not as lively. Not as fresh. Which is a weird thing to say about a pu-erh, honestly, but it's true.
After steeping the orange aroma comes out more, but I'm only picking up some earthy hints of the pu-erh. Mostly it's dried oranges. It makes it seem a little more lively, but it still strikes me a bit... thin.
No, this does not compare to NBT at all. If I slurp the sips I get pu-erh and oranges and everything, but it just tastes very dusty. Again, it lacks _livelyness._ It's just a standard tea. It doesn't have _character._
It's nice enough, and I certainly like it better than *Wombatgirl* did, but it's not even close to being as good as the NBT orange pu-erh.Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:23:15 -0400/teas/Orange%20Pu-erh%20(No.%20841)/12122-orange-pu-erh-no-841?post=51458
Strawberry Zabaglione from 52teasI had a cup of this last night, and I was surprised to see that I've used half the leaves already. I didn't think I'd been drinking it _that_ much...
As an experiment I added some of my vanilla black from Whittard of Chelsea to see if it would bring out the custard-y qualities more.
It certainly did. It was very very custard-y and the strawberries got completely drowned. It was almost cloyingly sweet and acquired a great deal of astringency at the end of the sip.
If you like something very sweet, you might like this combination. Personally I wasn't convinced by it and I see no reason to take this line of experimentation any further.Wed, 15 Sep 2010 02:45:44 -0400/teas/Strawberry%20Zabaglione/12889-strawberry-zabaglione?post=51500
Mystic Dragon Tea from The Spice and Tea ExchangeThis is another one that *Wombatgirl* sent to me. It's one of those things that I didn't even know that I was interested in trying until I actually had it in my hand. But now that I do, I'm very very curious!
I like strawberries in tea (and otherwise), I liked the rhubarb sencha I had once from *TeaEqualsBliss* (I think) and the Dragonwell/Sencha combination is really very interesting, but not one I had even considered for a moment before.
I only had enough leaf for one pot, so I used all of them in my small favourite farm animals pot. I forgot to smell the dry leaves, though, but after steeping it smells very Dragonwell-y. There is that cat breath note that is fairly easy to find. It's very sweet too in a kind of creamy way, so I'm guessing that must be due to the strawberries and mallow flowers. The rhubarb is coming through with a sharp stap of acid. Very rhubarb-like.
It has a funny multi-layered flavour. For a flavoured tea blend, I'm not sure how well I think they got away with it when I'm getting the flavours one at the time with clear distinctions in between. First, strawberry and Dragonwell. Then sharp rhubarb tangyness. Last a sencha finish.
If this had been a more fluently developing flavour it would have been awesome, but it doesn't really flow for me like that. Still, I'm very pleasantly surprised by this one. Had the flavour been more rounded off and fluent, I'd have given it a few more points and I'm still not sure I'd have wanted to own it in larger quantities, but it was definitely intersting to try it and a pleasant cup.Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:47:12 -0400/teas/Mystic%20Dragon%20Tea/13518-mystic-dragon-tea?post=51536
Red Dragon Pearl from thepuriTeaThis is another one I got from *Wombatgirl*.
I didn't read the description of it first, and I didn't consider the fact that balls need time to unfurl as well as steep for the best result, so the first steep of this was rather on the weakling side.
The second steep, however, seems to be very similar, only not weak. There is a fair hint of dark cocoa in the aroma, although not as much as I find in a Certain Other Part of China. ;) It smells very smooth and chocolate-y. Smells a bit creamy even.
There's a nice cocoa-y flavour to it as well, but it's not the dominant flavour. You know how this one has the word 'red' in the name? Well it has a reddish brown sort of flavour too. It's not bright red, it's more like a reddish kind of wood colour. And yes, flavours can have colours. Other than its colour, however, I'm having a hard time really identifying it. It's sort of slightly wooden, slightly spicy and maybe a teeeeeeensy bit semi-cinnamon-y.
Yes, the more I taste it, the more convinced I am that it's got a cinnamon-esque quality.
That's interesting because I don't usually care much for cinnamon in tea, but I'm surprisingly pleased with this cinnamon-y-ness.
These balls are very nice indeed. And I have only used half of the ones I was given. Win. :DSat, 18 Sep 2010 07:08:30 -0400/teas/Red%20Dragon%20Pearl/13239-red-dragon-pearl?post=51756
Keemun Hao Ya A from TeaSpringACK! ARGH! _splutter!_
Used the usual amount of leaf, steeped for only one minute.
How the heck did it get to be this strong?
A mystery, indeed.Sat, 18 Sep 2010 16:44:59 -0400/teas/Keemun%20Hao%20Ya%20A/14836-keemun-hao-ya-a?post=51799
English Rose Tea from Whittard of ChelseaI revisited this one today, and once again got a little disappointed by the fact that it's quite fruitish in flavour and not at all roseish.
How can they make a tea named after an english rose and not have it be a black tea + rose, period?
How can they make a tea flavoured very distinctively with fruit and call it english rose? A very _tropical_ fruit, even?
Sure, the british empire stretched well and truly into some very tropical areas, but _still!_
This is really bothering my OCD something awful!
That said, though, the tropical fruitness of it, was a pretty good choice to follow my evening meal which had many many nectarines and strawberries in it. So I was sort of adhering to a theme there. Or something. It took away a great deal of the initial disappointment of it not being what I expected (even though I've had it before), and made a quite enjoyable cup anyway.
Yes, I had dessert for dinner. I am _such_ a grown-up!
(And if you are interested, this was dessert: http://www.formerchef.com/2010/09/15/strawberry-and-nectarine-crisp/ FormerChef has tons of awesome and easy to follow(!) recipes, you should totally check it out)Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:35:41 -0400/teas/English%20Rose%20Tea/3669-english-rose-tea?post=51927
Watermelon Raspberry Green Tea from 52teasMy latest 52teas order arrived today!
I'm starting with this one, because out of the new ones, this is the one I was looking forward to the most. I have rather high expectations of this. Fruity and berry-y green and white blends have consistently been a hit with me from 52teas, and that alone is reason enough to give this one a try as well.
I really like raspberries and I really like watermelon, but the raspberry/watermelon combination isn't one that would immediately have popped into my mind. I don't think I've ever had a watermelon flavoured tea before, but I have had your various sorts of cordial or squash and such with watermelon in it. And always it seemed rather plastic-y and synthetic to me.
Please let this be different. Please.
The leaves have a funny sort of aroma. Fruity, but neither raspberry or watermelon. It's a sticky, sweet smell. A little bit like... if you can imagine fruit-flavoured butter, that's more or less it. If I concentrate, I can recognise it as primarily watermelon, but it's a little difficult. I think it's the aroma of the sencha mixed in that's messing with my nostrils.
After steeping the fruit-flavoured butter is more cream-y. I'm reminded of ice-cream here, and the sencha is standing out more on it's own here. Slightly salty and slightly vegetable-y. I like the steeped aroma better than the dry aroma, I think.
Now, the important bit. The flavour. The flavour really works! It's summer-y fresh, but still a bit heavy on the sweetness so it's got a lot of body.
I'm getting a lot of the sencha flavour profile primarily, but the fruity-ness sort of wraps around it and becomes a secondary thing. A companion piece, if you will.
This is not a bad thing. I'm a Kusmi fangirl, remember? I like it when it's not totally in your face.
It's not that it doesn't have lots of fruit flavour, because it does. It just doesn't cover _everything._
I'm getting a lot of the watermelon, but again the flavour is a little twisted by the natural flavour profile of the sencha. Lots and lots of almost pure watermelon on the aftertaste, though. LOTS!
Not so much raspberry other than a creamy note on the finish, especially, and, to a smaller degree, aftertaste, which is a bit of a shame I think.
All in all, I'm quite pleased with this, and it's totally living up to my expectations. And not synthetic at all.Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:55:35 -0400/teas/Watermelon%20Raspberry%20Green%20Tea/14854-watermelon-raspberry-green-tea?post=52023
Essence of Assam from 52teasAnother one from my recent 52teas order.
And it's not whacky-flavoured! How can this be??? I'm not normally all that impressed by most Indian blacks, but I've seen a lot of good things about this one, and my colleague and I decided to buy some Assam (elsewhere, cheaper) to have at work after getting rid of the last of our uber-boring oolong. So I was feeling inspired.
Now, this is going to be short, because I woke up from a very long nap just half an hour or so ago, and I'm still all groggy.
I'm struck by a strong note of raisins in the aroma. Like insanely raisin-y! There is also hint of malty sweetness, but really it's mainly raisins for me.
It's a little strong and a little astringent but without the borderline bitterness. The raisin-note is still very strong, especially on the aftertaste. And I mean it's really very very raisin-y! Are we _sure_ this hasn't been flavoured a little bit???
It's still not the Perfect Assam, but I feel like we're getting closer here. Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:10:52 -0400/teas/Essence%20of%20Assam/13010-essence-of-assam?post=52098
Kitchen Sink Green Tea from 52teasAlso from my most recent 52teas order.
This was my freebie surprise pouch from the latest special offer, and the source of some suspicion about the selection of these so-called random surprises. See, when I ordered I considered leaving a note with my order that I'm not a chai fan, don't like rooibos and haven't had all that good experiences with peanut butter. Not that it was really my place to request anything at all when the offer said 'random' but just in case Frank might pay attention to it.
But then I decided that would be cheating, and if I got something that I didn't like, I could always find a hapless victim to foist it upon. So I said nothing.
And then I got this. A green tea with fruit in it. As mentioned earlier, something I've had some really good experiences with from 52teas as well as fruit flavoured whites. Who doesn't remember the white black currant, for example? Or the razzleberry green? (I miss that one) Or the Tropical Explosion white!
Frank sent me something I hadn't tried before but was in the same category as things I've consistently liked a lot.
Then I saw *LiberTeas* had received a supposedly-random picked bonus pouch as well, and AGAIN it was one that had completely missed all her dislikes and was one she had planned on trying at some point later on.
Coincidence? I think not. I think Frank has been paying attention to our likes and dislikes where he could, and done his homework before selecting these random ones. (And he can protest all he likes, I won't believe him) It makes me feel all special and listened to. :)
When this one was first introduced, I was a little scared of it. The sheer amount of ingredients! But it's here now and I discovered in myself a genuine curiosity about trying it. Funny how sometimes you don't know these things until you've got it in your hands.
The aroma of the dry leaves actually reminded me a lot of the Tropical Explosion. That was a good sign! It's very very fruity but still sencha coming through loud and clear. Very nice!
I took too long to write the theory up there and I also got distracted by other stuff, so the cups gone luke-warm. Hrm. No comments on the steeped aroma then. The flavour may have gone a bit off too, not being warm anymore, but it's definitely green tea with fruit. I can't pick out any particular fruits, but it's definitely fruit-y.
I like it. Good choice, Frank. Even if it was COMPLETELY RANDOM! (As if! ;) )Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:36:47 -0400/teas/Kitchen%20Sink%20Green%20Tea/14140-kitchen-sink-green-tea?post=52119
Assam FTGBOP from A C Perch'sOur new tea at work, my colleague and me.
We generally have an Assam with plenty of milk when we go to our favourite cafe for our little 'afternoon meetings' now and then. It's about the only instance I take milk in my tea by default. Most of the time I prefer without.
So after the fiasco that was the Taiwanese oolong of boringness, we decided to go back to something thoroughtly tried and tested. We even bought a small carton of milk for it too.
I tried a little of it without additives first, and unlike aforementioned oolong of boringness I was quite pleased with what I got.
The aroma is strong on the malty sweetness. There's a little oakyness too but not very much. Mostly it's just a molasses-y sweet general tea aroma.
There is a good deal of body in the flavour, but it still seems quite mild and smooth. Mild here does not equal delicate or weak. Just sort of... mild. You know?
It's still quite sweet with a touch of astringency on the finish, but interestingly I'm also getting a relatively strong raisin-y note at the back of my palate. It's not as strong as the one in 52teas' Essense of Assam, but it's very very clearly there, especially if I slurp a little.
I've never noticed that in Assams before, but now I'm wondering if I've stumbled upon some sort of typical flavour for the type. Like the cocoa note in Fujians. Interesting.
All of this is of course completely drowned out and ruined by the addition of milk, but that's okay given the fact that this is for work. We are not concentrating on flavour here, we just want some tea to drink. :)
All in all I'm quite pleased with this one. I'm not sure if this is the Perfect Assam for me either, but it's definitely a pleasant tea. I did like the 52teas Assam a little better for the stronger raisin note, but this would be an excellent alternative.Thu, 23 Sep 2010 08:56:07 -0400/teas/Assam%20FTGBOP/15310-assam-ftgbop?post=52200
Tropical Explosion White Tea from 52teasThe recent new fruity things from 52teas reminded me that I still actually have this one. A whole half pouch! So I decided to make me a cup while taking care of some correspondance (Ow! Crampy cramp is cramping crampily! I am way too used to typing!).
I didn't drink it. I _NOMMED_ it.
The funny thing is that I really especially like that note of coconut right there on the swallow and finish. I don't usually appreciate coconut in tea at all, but I think that's because there is such a thing as too much coconut. It's very toned down here to a secondary flavour, and that works much better for me. Sat, 25 Sep 2010 10:27:02 -0400/teas/Tropical%20Explosion%20White%20Tea/10145-tropical-explosion-white-tea?post=52421
Keemun Hao Ya A from TeaSpringMy rolemodel in all things smoky and chinese black *Auggy* posted about a lovely Keemun this evening. I'm not sure if I'm as big a Keemun fan as she is, as I don't think I'm as experienced in the field yet, but it is definitely a type I enjoy immensely. Unfortunately the leaves of awesome that she had are not available to me, due to the branch of the company in question available to me never have _anything_ of interest to me.
BUT! I've got my TeaSpring Keemun (tin level getting low) which is also very nice indeed and I felt inspired. Last time I had it I accidentally managed to make it double strength, but I've avoided that trap this time. No idea how it even happened in the first place. I must have been distracted and added leaves to the pot twice or something.
Tonight it works though. Nicely smoky and little bit rough, but with a lovely sweetness underneath.
Tonight it's just absolutely wonderfully awesome and I'm cranking the rating up a few points.
*ETA:* And you won't believe the idiotic way in which I just spilled a third of the cup. It was on the table, I wanted to put something down on the table behind the cup, missed and end ended up with a cup of tea _and_ hand and Lake Keemun on the table. ARGH!Sat, 25 Sep 2010 15:42:14 -0400/teas/Keemun%20Hao%20Ya%20A/14836-keemun-hao-ya-a?post=52440
Genmaicha Japan 655 from SpecialTeasGood morning Steepsterites.
I jumped back into the box of surprises I received from *Wombatgirl* recently, and this is the one that spoke to me today. I've only been up about half an hour or so and I'm still pretty sleepy. Maybe that's the reason I chose this one. Genmaichas have always rather struck me as breakfast-y teas. I think it's because the flavour of the rice reminds me of cereal.
This one seemed to have a serious lot of rice in it and not so much actual leaves, and the leaves that _were_ there were broken and itty bitty. Seems this is the norm. I can't remember ever having met a genmaicha were the leaves were of a decent size and two thirds of it didn't look like it was rice.
But then again it's been a while since I've had any at all. The last one I had was the malted one from 52teas where I didn't really like the malted flavour much. Coincidentally that's also the only time I've ever seen a flavoured genmaicha.
Anyway part of this choice is the cereal aspect and part of it was the realisation last night that when it comes to green my tastes seem to lean mostly towards Japan. I have some excellent chinese greens, but somehow the japanese ones just strike me as more interesting, without that necessarily having anything to do with the actual flavour of them, if you know what I mean. It's a little difficult to explain.
And now that I have explained in great excruciating detail why I chose this particular one to start the day, let's move on to the actual purpose of the post.
I have to admit I didn't bother smellling the leaves. I could smell the rice already when I opened it, and it was rice and rice and rice and rice all the way through, so I think I'd be able to stell anything else anyway. After steeping it's pretty much the same story. I'm picking up a lot of rice and a lot of the cereal quality, but the green tea isn't really coming through much at all. It never does with these.
Quite cereal-y, very rice-y. A little salty too, but not hugely so. I figure it's the rice that creates the salty flavour. There isn't really a lot all else to say about it. I find it difficult to write extensive posts about these things because the primary flavour is just the roasted rice and that is a fairly consistent flavour.
I like genmaichas generally, but their individual ratings depend more on how I'm liking genmaicha in general on that particular day than it does on one being preferable to others. I'm liking it quite a lot today. :)Sun, 26 Sep 2010 02:03:02 -0400/teas/Genmaicha%20Japan%20655/7004-genmaicha-japan-655?post=52480
Bai Lin Ju Hong from TeaSpringI've reached a decision regarding this tea. I have decided that it is one of those that must live in my cupboard at all times, like Lapsang and Tan Yang. Sometimes I wonder if I ought to make an official list of Permanent Collection or something so that it's easier to tell if I need to order something. It's the lab rat in me, I guess, this instinct to keep inventory. If I'm not careful I'll end up making inventory of my entire kitchen with premade shopping lists where I can just cross off the things that I need. (Wait... That's actually a pretty good idea!)
It's very similar to the Tan Yang, I think. Enough that one can stand in for the other in a pinch if I'm out of one, but at the same time it's different enough that I want to keep both around.
The Tan Yang, with its smoky qualities and split personality can seem a little aggressive if you're not prepared for it. This one is friendlier. If the Tan Yang is a masculine tea, this is... not feminine at all, but less caveman-y.
Today it has a relatively strong honey note, especially in the aroma and then it comes out again on the finish. Dark orange-y notes are having over the flavour like a veil, not very obvious, but just a soft tint to everything. In the forefront the strong cocoa powder note that makes the flavour all round and strong.
A gorgeous tea indeed and very much recommended!Sun, 26 Sep 2010 04:22:25 -0400/teas/Bai%20Lin%20Ju%20Hong/14835-bai-lin-ju-hong?post=52483
Apricot Fusion from 52teasLast of my recent 52teas order.
It smells like apricot jam! And something else that I can't put my finger on. Kind of passion fruit-y but not. I think it's just that passion fruit and apricot have very similar smells. It smells sweet though. Like a nice fruity dessert cake.
With this blend of green, oolong and white AND fruit, I'm expecting a somewhat confused flavour. I was sold on the combination none the less then.
It _is_ a little confused actually. There's a primary note of Long Jing which is pretty easy to find. Then there's an earthy note of oolong attached to that and an overall note of apricot. I can't find any white in it though, but then again, that's a pretty delicate flavour to begin with.
As a green tea, Long Jing doesn't really count as one of my favourites, but it works nicely with the apricot. I think it's a question of flavours that match.
I like this, it's very nice. But it's not my favourite.Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:46:26 -0400/teas/Apricot%20Fusion/15162-apricot-fusion?post=52587
Heritage Aijiao from Red Blossom Tea CompanyI'm finishing up this little gem that *Wombatgirl* sent to me. I'm loving it to bits and I'm steeping the stuffing out of these last leaves. At least that's the plan. I'm only on the second steep so far.
There's a nice toasted flavour to it now with a touch of cocoa notes. I could have wished it a little stronger, but there weren't enough leaves for that.
It is indeed a very very lovely tea, and very very recommendable. If at all available to you, do yourselves a favour and try it.
(Gosh, I'm so behind on the dashboard again! Been busy moving into my brand-spanking new desktop (His name is Desky), and also if there are any NaNoWriMo participants out there, I'm Angrboda there as well)Sat, 02 Oct 2010 04:37:42 -0400/teas/Heritage%20Aijiao/12154-heritage-aijiao?post=52966
White Tea Wu-Long Premium from Shang TeaDiving into the package from *Wombatgirl* once again, and this is what I found. I haven't really been feeling in the mood for white much for a while, but since I started the day on green (I was lazy. Couldn't be arsed to rinse out the pot so I just resteeped) I was feeling more in that sort of mindset today.
One of the things that always tend to surprise me with a lot of white teas is the colour of the leaves. I want them ALL to be silver! Because, you know, it's a _white tea!_ But they're not, and I can't seem to get the fact into my head that a white tea can have primarily dark leaves. (It's a good thing that I learned much later that oolongs are also sometimes called blue teas or I'd have been seriously confused!)
The next surprise came when I sniffed the dry leaves. Chocolate? _Chocolate???_ What??
I smelled several times, and I smelled after breathing on them first and the aroma insisted on being chocolate. I've never met _that_ in a white before! It smells natural though. Not contamination-like. Oddness. O.o
It's got a fairly deep yellow colour after steeping, but then I did steep a whole minute. Maybe that's a little much, but I tend to have difficulties with whites and steeping time. I can't seem to decide if I like them very shortly steeped or a little longer. I keep changing my mind. At any rate it's a warm yellow, a rather lovely colour, really, and nicely transparant.
It smells very fresh now and the funny chocolate note is nearly gone away. It's sort of spooking around at the very bottom of the aroma, but primarily I smell something slightly grassy and very floral.
It tastes quite nice. It reminds me of a Dragonwell actually, with that semi-salty viscous flavour. I'm not really sure how big a fan I am of that, but it's not overwhelming here. After the cup cools down a little more it's further subdued. At this point it's got a rather floral taste. It's like drinking a mouthful of little spring flowers.
It's very nice and very delicate cup, but by no means something I could drink a lot of at the time. One cup seems to me to be just about enough, and then it'll be a while before I'll be in the mood for another one. A bit like if you eat chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa, like around 70% or something. It's still very good, but you don't need or want to eat as much as if it had been milk chocolate.
I feel the need to give it a high rating even if it doesn't reflect whether or not it's something I would like to be able to drink often or whether or not I'll miss it when it's gone. Because it _is_ good. It's just also very filling.Sun, 03 Oct 2010 06:11:31 -0400/teas/White%20Tea%20Wu-Long%20Premium/14846-white-tea-wu-long-premium?post=53036
Long Jing from TeaSpringI'm having this one this morning, not because I wanted to (I'd rather have had some Tan Yang) or because I'm particularly fond of it (actually I took the rating down a little), but out of some feeble hope for relief.
I woke up with my throat feeling terribly sore and I've eaten a strepsils which helped some but not totally. I don't know if it really is something or if I've just been snoring a lot while sleeping, but either way, it still hurts. So I picked this tea not because of the flavour but because it often feels kind of viscous to drink and I figured it might be easier to swallow than other teas. If my throat hurts, I find it easier to drink viscous things like for example milk.
I gave it a pretty short steep because that's what the timer was set at from last night and I couldn't be arsed to change it when it was much easier to just press start, and it hasn't actually developed much of that viscosity at all.
I might as well have made a Tan Yang after all. Can't win them all, I guess.Wed, 06 Oct 2010 01:40:10 -0400/teas/Long%20Jing/6863-long-jing?post=53303
Throat Tea from Luka Te m.m.Okay, so it wasn't just because I'd been snoring. I had a few errands to run and I had a stop at Luka anyway, so I asked for something chamomile for myself. Then I asked her if she had something in a blend that could take a bit of the nasty flavour and she gave me this.
Chamomile and licorice root which is also something that's soothing for the throat. Not a combination I can really imagine. It smells awful too. Still very chamomile-y after brewing and I can't detect much licorice root.
But if it's good for me... bottoms up, right?
BLEURGH!
Bleurgh and bleurgh again.
Could be worse though. It's not undrinkable, it's just not really very nice. Mostly chamomile which I've steadily disliked more and more over the years (as a child I really enjoyed it) and some licorice root on the swallow
What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. Or something.Wed, 06 Oct 2010 08:49:19 -0400/teas/Throat%20Tea/15532-throat-tea?post=53308
Throat Tea from Luka Te m.m.Ergh yuck! The next time I find myself in the unfortunate situation that I have to buy chamomile, I'll go cheap and get some bagged supermarket brand.
Because this stuff looks absolutely disgusting when cleaning it out of the pot.Fri, 08 Oct 2010 03:13:47 -0400/teas/Throat%20Tea/15532-throat-tea?post=53483
Captain Assam from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaI've been waiting for news from these guys since what feels like the dawn of time! So when it finally happened I hastily bought me a set. (and threw in a set of S3 too, just because it was there and the Caravan is teh awesum!) I was interested to see that they had an Assam again, since they'd had one before. I never got to try any of S2 so it suited me fine. And yes, I'm aware that it's not the _same_ one, but it's close enough. I was a little afraid of it, to be honest. What if it would turn out to be The Perfect Assam? Just my luck that my TPA would turn out to be a limited edition!
The leaves smelled very raisin-y sweet dry and it's more or less the same thing after steeping. I managed to overbrew it a tad, so it's rather strong this morning. Typical when trying something for the first time.
It's got quite a sticky astringency. It is astringent, largely I expect due to my own brewing mistake, but there's a feeling to it as if there's sugar in it. Sort of sweet in a sticky way, a bit like the way soda is sticky. The raisin flavour is intact though, as is the funny cardboard-y quality.
Raisins and cardboard. The Assam characteristics, apparently.
In spite of it being overdone, I feel safe enough in giving it a preliminary rating. As always it's likely to be adjusted several times when I manage to get a proper cup put together. I don't know yet if it is the Perfect Assam or not, but it's definitely not eliminated from the competition.Wed, 13 Oct 2010 02:55:43 -0400/teas/Captain%20Assam/15404-captain-assam?post=53842
Tan Yang Jing Zhi from TeaSpringLet it be known that Tan Yang black is just about the closest thing to perfection I've ever met in Tea-Land. It's interesting and complex and it has both smokyness and a strong cocoa and raisin note to it. Anything you like in a chinese black, the Tan Yang has it.
It's no secret that I have a torrid love affair with TeaSprings Tan Yang Te Ji. For the longest time, however, that was sold out but they still had the Tan Yang Jing Zhi in stock. A higher leaf grade and a MUCH more expensive tea. Expensive enough that it's certainly not one that I would just go ahead and buy large amounts of. Money don't grow on trees where I come from.
So when the Te Ji finally came back in stock I went ahead and bought a larger supply and a small amount of the Jing Zhi for experimentation and comparison purpose. If the Te Ji is such a piece of perfection, how awesome could not the more refined version be?
25g. Half of it I sent off to *Auggy* as she is also a lover of the Tan Yang (I don't mind taking the blame for that) and I wanted her to have the opportunity to experiment and compare as well. It's always nice with a second opinion. The other half was carefully packed down again and has been lying around for a while. I wanted plenty of time to try it in and I was also afraid of messing the brewing up, what with having so little of it and it being priced the way it was.
But today is the day. I'm doing a side by side comparison, so I've just made two cups of tea in my little farm animals favourite pot. One Te Ji (in the sheep cup) and one Jing Zhi (in the kitty cup). I've been careful to brew them exactly the same way. Same amount of leaf, same temperature, same time. Even same shape cup (but that's more because the size fits the pot perfectly). I made the Jing Zhi last so I can resteep the leaves and the get the most out of them.
Rather than making two identical posts, I'm posting the whole thing in this one, since it's a comparison of two very similar teas and I'm primarily wanting to see how the Jing Zhi is in comparison to the far more well-known Te Ji.
_In the following, all notes pertaining to Te Ji will be in italics._
There seems to be more aroma. It's more or less the same notes, sweet, slightly wooden, slightly smoky and rather raisin-y. Weirdly I'm not finding much cocoa in either of them this morning. That's odd because the first time I had Te Ji _it had very strong cocoa notes to it_ and I would have expected the Jing Zhi to be the same. Maybe the first time around was a better year for cocoa-notes. Or something.
Stronger, fuller aroma in Jing Zhi, but the same notes.
_There is still a lot of cocoa in the flavour, especially on the swallow, but mostly it's a sweetly oaky sort of flavour. A bit spicy, and not very smoky, but the smoke generally don't really come to its right until the second steep_
This seems stronger. A little more astringent, a little closer to a pang of bitterness. It doesn't seem to have the same immediate charm, and I'm reminded of how the Te Ji wasn't really that special the first time, but grew on me with remarkable speed. There is definitely smoke present here, as well as an oaky note. It's not as sweet though. _Te Ji appears to have an ever so slightly honeyed note. It's very very little and only there if you really search for it,_ but I can't find that in Jing Zhi at all, how ever much I search. The more fruity notes of raisins are more well developed here though than in Te Ji.
The Jing Zhi seems a little rougher, a little sharper around the edges. I prefer the Te Ji here.
All in all, the Jing Zhi is very awesomely good. Like the Te Ji it's just a whisker away from perfection. In some ways, yes, I think it is a little bit better than Te Ji, but it's no way near so much better that I'm willing to pay that amount of money for it. The Te Ji wins on price by several horse lengths. If and when I become a multi-billionaire, I might switch to Jing Zhi just for the snobbery of it, but in the meantime Te Ji is totally still pressing all the same buttons.Sat, 16 Oct 2010 04:47:26 -0400/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Jing%20Zhi/11184-tan-yang-jing-zhi?post=54127
Keemun Hao Ya A Grade "Chinese Breakfast Tea" from Chicago Tea GardenThese last couple of days have been pretty awful for me and I've been in a somewhat asocial and depressive mood. Not as bad as it has sometimes been before, but still noticable. Luckily my parcel from *Auggy* arrived yesterday, containing my Keemun education (I think I must be at level 2 now, or...?), so I'm making a start on that now and starting with this one, which *Auggy* said was her favourite out of the three.
It smells very sweet, with a little spicyness to it. Weirdly it's reminding me a little of freshly baked rye bread. As in proper rye bread. The danish sort. Like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugbr%C3%B8d. (And if you follow the Oprah link and if you watch the video of a danish home, do NOT believe the headline. That is NOT a typical danish home, but it is a fairly standard size fridge, even if Oprah seems to expect us to be able to store enough food to feed an army. We don't need room for more food than we can eat, do we?) Anyway, that's what the aroma reminds me of. Even though it's not actually the same smell. Just sort of in the same semi-category nearly almost kind of.
After the cup has been sitting for a little, the spicyness is still there, but the sweetness has transformed a little. It's kind of semi-green now. Not green-green and not very grassy, but with a definite vegetative quality to it.
I can't immediately pick up notes of smoke in the aroma though.
On the flavour there is definite smoke, however. It's the first thing I notice when I taste it, especially if I slurp a little. Underneath that again the straw-like spicyness and the very sweet note from before.
Weirdly the flavour is reminding me of rye bread again. A good rye bread (for me) has tons of grain in it, making it a heavy bread. This is kind of the same. It tastes like it's a heavy tea, sort of. If it was a rye bread it would be one of my preferred ones. Grainy. I've managed to get myself lost in this odd comparison, and it's surprisingly difficult to really explain it, and even more difficult to untangle myself from it again.
Let's just say it's making me want to eat rye bread now.
I'm liking this a lot, and I can totally see why *Auggy* counts it among her favorites. It certainly deserves a metric ton of points.Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:11:13 -0400/teas/Keemun%20Hao%20Ya%20A%20Grade%20%22Chinese%20Breakfast%20Tea%22/13467-keemun-hao-ya-a-grade-chinese-breakfast-tea?post=54502
Sticky Rice Pu-erh Tuocha from Chicago Tea GardenAnother one from *Auggy*. It's actually too late in the evening to be drinking tea. I ought to be considering going to bed so I can get out of it in the morning, but I was standing in the shower feeling the craving for pu-erh.
At first I considered some of the orange pu-erh that *Wombatgirl* sent me and which I've been partial to lately (I seriously need to get some more of the one NBT has the next time order, which won't be long), but then I thought I'd rather give this one a try.
I've only had sticky rice once in my life. It was in the spring when the boyfriend and I were visiting friends in Paris. It was an asian restaurant (can't remember exactly which country. Vietnam possibly?) and it was served inside an actual bamboo stick. Very tasty flavour added to the rice, although, it was a little difficult to get out of the stick.
Then I saw this one show up on my dashboard. I just couldn't imagine that flavour in tea. Tea and rice were just completely non-combinable in my head, so I was moderately curious about it. I can't remember ever actually having said this, but lucky for me *Auggy* can hear my thoughts. Or something.
I have three touchas and they certainly smell like rice. Take a bag of rice, throw in a spoonful of pu-erh leaves, shake well and inhale. That's exactly what this smells like, both dry and steeped. I'm partial to the steeped aroma over the dry one though, as the steam makes it a rounder aroma which fills up the nose better.
The flavour is very rice-y and only moderately pu-erh. Rice is evidently a very dominant flavour and it kind of feels more like drinking a soup rather than drinking tea. If I had this around dinner time I suspect I'd have to remind myself that it isn't actually food.
The pu-erh comes out a little more as it cools down to a comfortable drinking temperature, but it's still not something that screams, "I'M A PU-ERH! HEAR ME ROAR!" It's actually a very mild-mannered pu-erh. Maybe a little too mild. I don't really feel like I'm drinking pu-erh and therefore it's not really what I was looking for when I decided to try it. I could however find it one I'd like to come back to again and again for other reasons. Even if the flavour isn't particularly complex, it's still very nice and very interesting.
A smaller thing, is touchas in general. Can't work out what I think about them. I like how practical it is, just unwrap one and add water. On the other hand with a toucha I don't actually know how much leaf I'm using. I used one toucha to my small pot containing about half a liter of water, but had it been loose leaf, I think maybe I would have used a little more leaf.
And now to work out how many points I want to give it while trying not to be influenced by the fact that I can see how many points *Auggy* gave it behind the update window... Yes, I think I'll score it like this.Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:51:28 -0400/teas/Sticky%20Rice%20Pu-erh%20Tuocha/11660-sticky-rice-pu-erh-tuocha?post=54547
Yunnan Golden Curls from Adagio TeasIt's cold and dark outside. There was no heat on in the train home from work and I've just recently managed to get properly warm again after that trip with the help of a big cardigan. Tea is of course also needed for the final warmth touch. Still had five tins of untried goodies from *Auggy* and this is one of them. Or was, as there was only leaf enough for one pot with the amount of leaf I tend to use. BUT there was _exactly_ the amount of leaf that I would use for my pot! What an awesome coinkidink!
These leaves are just about the cutest leaves I've ever seen. They're brightly golden and all curly and bow-y. Very decorative. Of course I was so tied up in the leaves being purdy and the fact that *Auggy* managed to hit exactly my perfect amount, that I forgot to smell them.
Adagio suggests a steeping time of 3-5 minutes. Habitually I use more leaf and a shorter steep. 3 minutes? That's an eternity! With a black I always start at one minute and work from there these days. It hasn't failed me yet. Obviously I had no intentions of following Adagio's advice there. Which means that the result of the steeping is erm... rather up in the air. :)
This tea smells like wet dog. I'm sorry, but it does. Not stinky-wet dog. But a definite and very specifically wet dog. It's a very spicy aroma, and very peppered. (I wonder if the pepper note is the source of that sneeze attack I had a few minutes ago) I used to consider golden yunnan a rather smoky sort and I was amazed when others identified it as pepper rather than smoke. Pepper? Really? With the aroma of this one, however, I too am getting the pepper. Loud and clear. No smoke. Just pepper.
What an interesting flavour. It has a strong oaky note, which rather reminds me of roiboos. Or maybe leaning more towards honeybush. It's that category anyway. It's sort of like the tea for people who would like to like roiboos but don't. If you _don't_ like rooibos and don't _want_ to like it, don't be scared away by this, though. It's not _that_ rooibos-y. This is the primary flavour.
Then there is that note that I tend to think of as semi-smoky. I'm finding it less and less so the more times I try Yunnans and more and more leaning towards the more standard pepper-y suggestion.
On the first sip I got a very initial pang of pure honey. It was sweet and fresh and so honeylike that I almost couldn't believe it. Maybe I shouldn't believe it. I can't seem to find that note again.
There's a rather nice lingering aftertaste to this. It leaves that coolness in the mouth, like after having something with peppermint. Not as pronounced, but definitely there. Along with that is the aftertaste of the tea, which seems to be rather true to the actual flavour of the tea itself. There's something familiar about it, though. It kind of reminds me of the aftertaste I get from Kusmi's Samovar blend. One wonders if that one has Yunnan in it...? (The tin just says Indian and Chinese teas. Not that helpful)
This is a tea that it would be easy to dislike. If you don't like these qualities in a tea, you won't like this one, because it does have a rather distinct flavour. On the other hand, if you like these qualities in a tea, you might really like this one a lot for the same reason.
I happen to quite like it, and I shall re-steep the leaves until they bleed.Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:44:39 -0400/teas/Yunnan%20Golden%20Curls/11537-yunnan-golden-curls?post=54725
Jackee Muntz from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaI didn't actually steep the yunnan to pieces like I said I would, because there was still tons of kick in it after four 1 minute steeps. As much as in the first go, and frankly I was wanting to try something else out of *Auggy's* parcel. So I decided that four large cups were pretty good going and sacrificed the leaves in order to make room for this one.
I have been curious about it since forever. Or rather since I saw the first mentions of a heavy caramel note if you steep it just so. Sadly by the time I discovered that A&D was indeed very available to me with reasonable shipping costs, Series 2 was long long gone. (And by the time I realised that chinese blacks were really rather difficult for me to dislike in general, as was S4. Woe.)
Anyway, due to the kindness of others, I'm now in possession of S2 samples, yay! Apart from getting to try them, it totally appeals to the obsessive-compulsive completionist in me.
The aroma isn't overwhelming in intensity, really. The thing about yunnan is that while good tea, the aroma of it is usually very strong and it's been stuck in my nostrils since the first sniff. Any tea I smell at the moment has spicy yunnan notes in it, and I don't think this one really should have. At least not this much. Shall we just skip this step, then, and go straight to the flavour? I think that would be best.
Hmm. Turned out a little weakly this one. Once again completely ignoring recommended steep times because of the amount of leaf I customarily use, I shall have to try a little longer steep.
I'm getting a little smoke and some of the general default Keemun flavour, and a little bit of sweetness on the swallow. Good but nothing really convincing yet. I suspect this is because it _is_ a bit on the weak side. We shall see what happens as it develops a bit in the cup.
Also I keep getting little yunnan pangs from it. Did I not rinse the pot out properly? With a little development it wouldn't be a half bad blend, but it's not really what I'm going for here. Oh dear me, will I have to have a pot dedicated only to yunnan? What a catastrophe! (What's available from Roy Kirkham?)
I'm becoming more and more convinced that this cup has Yunnan contamination in it. It definitely has a lot of promise, and I strongly suspect I'll be enjoying it a lot when I manage to get a working cup. But for now I'll leave it unrated, give the pot a thorough clean and try again later.
Sat, 23 Oct 2010 05:47:22 -0400/teas/Jackee%20Muntz/2481-jackee-muntz?post=54773
Kagoshima Sencha Sae Midori from O-Cha.comYes. I said I would give Jackee Muntz a second try after taking care of the Yunnan-infestation. This was indeed my intention, but then I came over feeling all green-like. This one is also from *Auggy* and a reminder that I have yet to find the best green tea. But I think it must definitely be one of the japanese ones, although that bolivian one I had rather grew on me as well. I thought for the longest time that the green for me was the bi lou chun, but... I don't know. These days it doesn't feel like _it._
That's a feeling that sencha has brought me closer to. I rather like how they go all radioactive in colour and that grassy, almost salty seaweed-y flavour. It makes them taste outdoors-y and active, where the chinese ones have a more sort of inactiveness about them. The sencha is the one that goes to the beach on an autumn day to see how big the waves are, while the average chinese green seems happier with hiding inside just in case the rain might actually turn out be harmful after all.
(And I know someone is likely to come charging in at this point, screaming _"MATCHA!!!!!!!"_ so I'll just point that I've tried that and wasn't convinced. Seems highly overrated to me with much the same flavour as a traditionally brewed sencha. In which case I prefer the traditional brew. Much easier to deal with in the end. So, no. I've lost all interest in matcha.)
So sencha. Seems to be the one I come back to time and time again. It doesn't hurt that it seems to carry flavouring quite well also, for example with berries or with rhubarb, the latter of which I'm slowly becoming rather partial to. There's just _something_ about it.
ANYWAY! This one is a plain sencha. The leaves are lovely dark green colour, like that of a coniferous forest, but they are rather small resulting in a deep green porridge like substance in the strainer. Half of which then missed the pot when I tried to tip it back in...
It's quite strong actually. It must be the small leaves that does it. I only gave it 30 seconds but it still feels a little bit over the top. And this is where I notice that *Auggy* suggested starting at instant pour... Tea brewing doesn't really seem to be going well for me today! It doesn't taste oversteeped though. Just rather on the strong side of things.
The flavour itself is familiar. Grassy and somewhat salty. It's a flavour with substance again. Like the sticky rice pu-erh, this is something where I have to remind myself that I'm having tea. Not some sort of tea-soup. It's _not_ a meal, self.
I like this one. It's an interesting flavour but also a straight-forward one. It doesn't demand brain capacity of me that I don't have and it forgives my initial unintended strength of brew. It tastes a bit, actually, like it might be rather difficult to ruin.
I should definitely start shopping around for the perfect Sencha (and possibly also familiarise myself a bit more with gyokuru which I've only tried once but found extremely pleasant). It's quite a treasure hunt I'm setting out for myself here. I need to find the perfect sencha, the perfect keemun, the perfect yunnan and the perfect assam (I think I'm close on this one). That's the rest of my life laid out right there.
Also, either I've been good at keeping up with the dashboard or you lot have all been very quiet for a while now. I think I'll risk my neck and add some more interesting people to follow. Who are your favourite steepsterite to follow?Sat, 23 Oct 2010 11:32:59 -0400/teas/Kagoshima%20Sencha%20Sae%20Midori/12270-kagoshima-sencha-sae-midori?post=54789
The Mermaid's Kiss from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaPutting in a Nothing But Tea order for _£cough!_ is definitely something that requires some celebration. It's always wonderful to spend _cough!_ of any currency on something nice.
Originally the idea this morning was to just resteep last night's sencha. This is a normal strategy for me because frankly I'm a lazy bugger. Especially in the morning. Sencha, though. Green tea. Cooler water. Right. I think I boiled four times, left it to cool and then forgot about it for the next half hour or so at which point I could start over. Eventually I gave up on this idea. Too expensive in electricity in the long run and not resulting in any tea.
So I thought I still had an untried A&D. Awesome! I put on the kettle, rinsed out the pot and added new leaves and _then_ looked at the tin. Cooler water recommended. This time I left the water to cool and set a timer so that I would remember to actually go and actually make the actual tea.
And result! Here it is! The Mermaid's Kiss. It only took 1½ hours or something like that to get a cup of tea this morning.
So magnolia eh? I don't know what that tastes like. I had a magnolia oolong once, back before the dawn of time (and certainly before the dawn of Steepster) that someone I once knew in Tennessee had sent to me. While I can't remember what it tasted like, I remember being a little saddened when it ran out. I had received I think 50g or so of three or four different things and the magnolia oolong was the one I finished the quickest by far. It's also the only one of the lot that I can actually remember. I can just remember that they came in dark red foil bags.
It smells floral and it reminds me of jasmine. I can't tell floral smells apart most of the time, and jasmine is the flower I'm most familiar with in scented tea, so everything ends up smelling like jasmine.
There's definitely something floral in the flavour as well. A sort of dusty perfume-y sensation on the back of the tongue, which may be simply oolongness or may be magnolia but is likely a combination of the two. Apart from this I can't really tell a lot about the oolong. There is a fairly large nutty note, but more or less, this seems to be a one note deal.
For me the magnolia seems to have very little flavour on it's own, but is simply enhancing the oolongness of the tea. It does taste very pleasant, but I'm not sure why I found it to be so memorably. I will happily drink it while I've got it, I may even purchase a second set later on, but I don't really see myself bemoaning the loss all that much when the tin is empty.Sun, 24 Oct 2010 03:25:31 -0400/teas/The%20Mermaid's%20Kiss/15405-the-mermaids-kiss?post=54864
Jackee Muntz from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaTrying again. Cleaned the pot and everything and have had both a green and an oolong that didn't go yunnan-y, so I'm feeling confident that it'll go better this time.
Yes, I do indeed have a much better result now. It's super-smoky on the nose and quite spicy. A little oaky but not much and there is a hint of rye. (I feel like I'm getting better at describing the aroma. It may not make that much sense to others but _I_ know _exactly_ what I mean). If I really flare out my nostrils and concentrate on it, I think I can pick up some underlying sweetness, but it's very very slight)
Surprising touch of spice on the flavour. My initial sip involved a small black pepper association, which may or may not have been the smoky combined with the fact that it's still a wee bit too hot to drink. It's not there in the second sip, here it's just smoke in surprising amounts. Really. Surprising.
Underneath that there is the rye-y slightly oaky body of it. It's a little prickly and evasive. I had expected many things from this tea. I had _not_ expected it to be shy. Come on out and play, Jackee... How can something so smoky be so shy, I don't understand it!
As the tea cools the flavour appears to become more couragous as well, coming out more and becoming larger. I wouldn't say it's the heavy silkiness that others have described, so I'm not sure I've managed to find the elusive caramel. I wasn't really expecting to either, I don't typically have that kind of luck.
Of course I'm a little disappointed that I failed at caramel, but for what I actually got, it's still rather nice. I'll enjoy the rest of the leaves. And I shall give it another go. Yes. I won't have to be annoyed at myself for not realising that A&D was unavailable to me before it was too late to try S2 (also have a sample of Thomas Sampson to try, also courtesy of *Auggy* )
*ETA:* What a minute, what was that? What the...? It's not a lot, but at this point, halfway down the cup, there does seem to be a slight sweetness to it. It's not a lot. It's very very slight and it may be my imagination. But where did _that_ come from all of a sudden?! That's not fair when I've already posted! Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:20:31 -0400/teas/Jackee%20Muntz/2481-jackee-muntz?post=54877
Keemun Hao Ya A from TeaSpringInspired by my tea-taste twin, I went and made me a cup of this also. And decupboarded. And whimpered heartbrokenly while doing so. Then I went and looked it up on TeaSpring's site and with even more heartbreak determined that I simply can't afford to keep myself in a steady supply of Hao Ya A. They have a 'regular' Keemun also, which is half the price of Hao Ya A, so I'll have to try that one out and see if it even remotely measures up to this one. If it doesn't, I'll try and get the Keemun Superior or whatever it was called (Keemun Imperial?) from Nothing But Tea. I rather liked the sample I had of that one.
So yes, I'm drinking this cup with all the attention I can muster to get as much as possible out of the last leaves, while at the same time trying not to dilute it with my tears of Hao Ya A-less despair.
On the upside, I managed to make it just about perfect this time. It's so smooth, almost viscous! And sweetness times lots. And rye. And grain. And caramel-y sweetness. And a bit of smoke, but not much this time actually.
It's just... Yes.
Hao Ya Nom. That totally ought to be a leaf grade. Just saying.Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:29:39 -0400/teas/Keemun%20Hao%20Ya%20A/14836-keemun-hao-ya-a?post=55010
Assam FTGBOP from A C Perch'sThis is what I'm having at work, I think I've mentioned that before.
I'm sharing it with my boss and usually we take turns buying milk for it. I don't usually take milk in tea, but while I rarely do it at home, I do think a little milk really suits a lot of Assams. But anyway, she was on vacation for the last week and a half so I've been all alone with the tea. Once I ran out of milk, I did buy a new half liter, but forgot to bring it, so I was just drinking it plain.
Lately I've found a lot of raisins in Assam. It's funny really how I'm finally beginning to learn to spot those typical flavours. It's taken me ages. I'd find them in each individual tea, but it's only just in the last year or so that I'm learning to really associate a specific region with a specific flavour profile. It makes it so much easier to work out what to expect from a new one.
So anyway, raisins. And also some sweetness. Some would say malty sweetness, and to a certain degree I agree with that, but sometimes I think it's more along the lines of honey.
The reason I'm posting about this one now is that yesterday at work I had an experience that was much like what I imagine it feels like to have succeeded in making Jackee Muntz go all caramel-y. The last half of the cup, cooled to just the right temperature was pure honey. It felt thick in the mouth even. An intense and dark honey with a little black tea around it.
It was UH-MAY-ZING!
And this is the reason why I'm giving the rating of this one a few more points.
I reckon this is a fairly good leaf grade. Obviously it's not The Best Ever out there, but it's not just an OP either. Funny that this, and not the FTGFOP should turn out to be something coming very very close to being My Perfect Assam. Even when I don't get it to be so utterly honey-y.
I wish I knew what I'd done to achieve that though. I have some other good Assams in my possession at the moment and I'll get through those first, but once they're gone, I may very well just order some of this for at home as well as work.Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:19:56 -0400/teas/Assam%20FTGBOP/15310-assam-ftgbop?post=55116
Essence of Assam from 52teasSo I was feeling inspired by my own last post (how pretentious!) and I tried to remember how I had scored the other of my Assams, this one especially since it's the one it's the longest time since I've tried. So I thought I'd look it up. And then I thought I'd make a cup so I could post about while looking it up anyway.
And what I've got here is a raisin-y aroma with a very strong honey note.
O.O
Could it be?
Actually, no, at this point it's mainly just the aroma. It's actually too hot to drink yet, but I did get a sip and that was very heavy on the raisins.
That aroma though... Yesterday the heavy honey flavour didn't come out until the last half of the cup, after it had cooled down some. So all hope is not lost.
Letting it cool a bit, I try again and am immediately disappointed by only watery raisins and just some spicy pricklyness. But then the aftertaste hit me. Honey. Whole bee hives of the stuff. At this point it's only really there on the absolute finish and in the aftertaste, but it gives me some rather interesting expectations for the rest of the cup.
A little further down the cup again, and the honey note has expanded some. It's not only on the aftertaste any more, it's just sort of gradually taking over the flavour and afterwards it's like someone coated the inside of my mouth with honey. It is, however, still not the super-strong honey that I found in AC Perchs' FTGBOP yesterday afternoon, but it is actually getting close.
But I'm still not sure how exactly I got it to do this.Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:14:29 -0400/teas/Essence%20of%20Assam/13010-essence-of-assam?post=55120
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch'sGood morning Steepsterites.
This tea was literally calling out to me this morning.
"Aaaang!" it said. "I feel sooo negleeected! Whyyy don't you driiink me any mooore?"
Poor little Lapsang! Just sitting there in the tin being all lonely and unloved. :´(
I can't have that, can I? So I made a cup, and I made it extra strength too.
The aroma is _all_ smoke and campfire and coniferous trees. There's a sweet, surprisingly fruity note underneath as well.
Oh yes. The initial mouthful of smoke. The finish of pure sugar (note that I haven't actually added anything to the cup. I almost never use additives and when I do I say so). Not even the slightest hint of astringency or bitterness or anything in spite of the fact that I used about a third more leaf than I normally would have. It's just remarkably smooth on the middle.
I'm coming quite close to deciding on this one for my Perfect Lapsang. TeaSpring do carry some awesome LS and they're fun to try. But this is what I'll come back to. It's awesome, it can totally measure up to TeaSpring's LSs in my book, and it's somewhat more cheaper only having to travel from Copenhagen to me and not all the way from China. (Even if I do think it's a little bit fun to get mail from China)
Oh my little nomsang souchong! Please forgive me for straying!Wed, 27 Oct 2010 04:13:04 -0400/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=55171
Sencha Yamato (GJ11) from Nothing But TeaMy Nothing But Tea order arrived today. That was insanely fast! It's only three days (from the UK to Denmark) since I actually placed the order and I wasn't even beginning to expect arrival yet. This of course prompted me to pull up NBT's contact form and send them some rather lengthy praise. :) Really, I'm more and more pleased with this company every time I shop there.
Inspired by the sencha that *Auggy* shared with me recently, I included some samples of their japanese green selection to my order. Two senchas, one flavoured sencha (sakura, of course), houjicha and kokeicha. The latter of which I find really really interesting sounding, but the Sencha Yamato won the ippy-dippy of which one to try first.
Definitely smells like a Sencha. It has that salty, grassy kind of aroma that is becoming more and more familiar to me. It's quite mild on the intensity of the aroma though, and it has a note of something else that I can't really place, but it's definitely familiar. I even suspect it's something I've eaten recently so now I'm searching my brain for what it could be. No result though. I'm sort of leaning vaguely towards unsalted peanuts, but that doesn't really seem quite right either.
I accidentally steeped it a full minute because I wasn't using my head at the time. I'd have used half that if I'd spared it some thought, but it's too late now. It does have a fairly prominent nearly-bitter note now though that I know isn't actually ideally supposed to be there. It gives it a certain stabby sharpness.
Underneath that however there's a vegetable note, like asparagus and to a smaller degree broccoli.
Even with a double steeping time, I'm finding it quite nice, but not really as good as the one *Auggy* shared with me. Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:36:13 -0400/teas/Sencha%20Yamato%20(GJ11)/15877-sencha-yamato-gj11?post=55178
Red Dragon Pearl from thepuriTeaI had nearly forgotten this one. It was only because I went to remove the orange pu-erh that *Wombatgirl* gave me (and which turned out to be my preferred morning travel cup tea) that I was reminded of this one. So now I'm using the other half of the sample, also sent to me by *Wombatgirl,* and can remove this from my cupboard as well.
(Actually I rather suspect my cupboard might need some general cleaning up because there are things in there I would swear have been gone for a long time... Must have a poke through the Basket O' Samples soon and figure it out.)
I'm following instructions this time, and the instructed steeping time is 3-5 minutes. I did a cautious 3. Although it felt really weird to do it. 3 minutes is an eternity when you start at 1 minute by standard!
OW! I burned by bongue! Ow....!
The aroma at any rate is lovely. It's got substance. A sweetish, somewhat heavy body of something like cocoa, and a spicy note floating on top which for me is enhancing the cocoa of the body.
After a reasonable cooling time, I'm trying again, and what I get is remarkably sweet. It's not quite that thick honey note I found in an Assam that One Enchanted Time, nor is it really a strong kind of chocolate-y cocoa-y thing. But it _is_ sweet.
It starts with a slightly wooden oaky note and then the sweetness comes. This sweetness that is so hard to pin down. More dark syrup than sugar. Slightly spicy and sweet at the same, almost biscuit-y. And finally a finish with a good flash of cinnamon. Yes, biscuits is a good comparison really.
This makes it sound like something that's primarily a dessert tea, but this is not actually true. It's got a strong flavour that makes it good for most any time of day.
I rather liked this one, and I would definitely recommend that others try it too.Sat, 30 Oct 2010 04:51:54 -0400/teas/Red%20Dragon%20Pearl/13239-red-dragon-pearl?post=55483
Tippy Yunnan from Nothing But TeaT - 5h 45min on NaNoWriMo starting. If there are any other wrimos out there, feel free to add me as buddy. I'm Angrboda there too, but if you use a different name there be sure to let me know who you are.
I'm on holiday this coming week, planned so that again this year I could get a midnight start. However due to some social circumstances I slept rather badly last night and woke up a lot, so I'm beginning to feel rather used at the moment.
Caffeine is required, and why not warm up for the writing month by writing a tea post.
I had a sample of this one before and on a whim, inspired by the Yunnan *Auggy* shared with me recently, decided to throw in a bag of it. I can see now why it stuck in my mind. 95 points, I gave the sample! That's a lot of points. Now I just hope it'll still live up to that score.
I'm struck by how floral the aroma is. Kind of rosy. Just flowers to begin with and then deeper down when taking a better sniff the pepper-y spicyness comes through. (My mouse just died. Again. Lovely.)
Very spicy on the first sip. I was slurping a lot and I got a mouthful of wet smoke and pepper out of it. Without slurping, it's more spicy and pepper-y with a hint of smoke than actually smoky. There's a hint of something sort of citrus-y too at the back of the mouth.
It's a relatively strong cup of tea, and it certainly has a lot of flavour, but it's not really all that complicated. I'm not sure I still think it's with 95 points but with my mouse currently being dead as a dodo, I can't do anything about the rating until I've rebooted the computer.
I do hope I'll be able to hold on until midnight and get a good midnight start. I'm totally excited about NaNo starting.
(And the mouse is back! Ha! New score.)Sun, 31 Oct 2010 12:46:15 -0400/teas/Tippy%20Yunnan/8992-tippy-yunnan?post=55570
Pu Ehr Orange (EP08) from Nothing But TeaNovember is finally upon us! Let -procrastination- writing commence!
And no, as a matter of fact, I am _not_ currently procrastinating by writing this post. I am resting. The key to a succesful NaNo is to know your own limits and I know that my ability to concentrate is microscopic. So I write in 15 minute spurts. And that's gone well enough throughout the day that I can already smell the first 5000 words, which I hope to reach before bedtime. And it's only twenty past seven. HAH!
So I am resting. Gearing up for the last 15 minutes needed for my goal and taking the time to stay in the writing zone with a Steepster post.
I've been drinking this one through out the day and have just made yet another steep of the same leaves. I think it must be the fourth or fifth time or something today. These leaves are SO durable.
I really think I've become completely addicted to pu-erh with orange flavour. I loved this when first I had it, nommed my way through the first 100g purchase, nommed my way through the one *Wombatgirl* sent me (different brand though) and am now nomming my way through the second 100g purchase. Next time I suspect I'll have to up the amount to a 250g purchase, because this is one of those flavours I really don't see myself getting tired of.
It works so well when there's something I'm working on throughout the day, like for example NaNoWriMo, because I don't have to think while drinking it and I can steep again and again and again so I don't have to consider things like water temperature or what to have next or anything. It's also become my absolute favourite tea to have in the travel mug in the mornings when I go to work, which also accounts for some of the rapid nomming.
If you like pu-erh and if you like oranges, I strongly suggest you do yourself the favour of seeking out the combination, because in my opinion these flavours compliment each other so well.
At this point it's become a stable tea for me, one that I'm very familiar with and know exactly what to expect from. But because the flavours are so well suited for each other and also very intense, it remains interesting to drink. As mentioned before, it's not something that I can see myself getting bored with anytime soon.
Therefore I'm kicking the score all the way up to 100. Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:15:15 -0400/teas/Pu%20Ehr%20Orange%20(EP08)/8973-pu-ehr-orange-ep08?post=55662
Sencha Sakura (FG08) from Nothing But TeaGood afternoon Wrimos and other Steepsterites.
I've broken 8K this afternoon and have reached the point where I realise that my manuscript is nothing short of utter tripe.
Clearly this means it's time for a change. Today and yesterday my writing teas have been dark and strong. Orange pu-erh yesterday, 1886 blend from Whittard of Chelsea today.
Maybe something light and bright might make a difference. So I took ten minutes to wash and clean my favourite pot (OMG all those yellow bits were actually white!) and turned to this sample I received recently from Nothing But Tea.
Sencha Sakura. It almost _sounds_ sparkly bright and fresh and optimistic, doesn't it? I haven't had it yet, and I'm already planning to include a 100g bag with my next order.
It certainly has a ton of -cheery- _cherry_ aroma. It smells a bit like cherry sweets or that sweet cherry sauce that it an invaluable part of the traditional danish christmas dessert. I can't smell the sencha underneath at all, only the cheery cherries.
It's the same thing after steeping. Cherries, cherries, cheery cherries everywhere. It reminds me rather of cherry flavoured winegums, only not as synthetic. Very very sweet though, and I _still_ can't pick up any of the sencha underneath.
Now I'm getting a little worried after all. What if it's just cherries in the flavour as well and nothing of the sencha? That would be a shame. It _is_ giving off some rather amazing hot cherry aromas sitting there in the cup more or less right underneath my nose though.
It's a very christmas-y smell for me. Not because cherries as such are all that associated with christmas in anyway, but it's just... I mentioned the traditional danish christmas dessert, right? Yeah, that's what it smells like when I don't have my nose that close to the cup.
I need not worry about the sencha. It has a strong sencha-y flavour and the cherry isn't at all as overpowering in the flavour as it is in the aroma. It's still very fruity though, but it's not cherry with some tea flavour, it's a very smoothly blended even balance between the two, and the flavours are perfectly interwoven with each other.
It is indeed a bright and cheery cherry thing. And yes. I shall put it on my shopping list for the next time I want to order something.
Very nice. Girly. But very nice.
On the upside, I think there's a pretty good chance that I'll have a finished first draft before I hit 50K. Of course then it needs rewriting, but still. Mind-boggling accomplishment.Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:21:48 -0400/teas/Sencha%20Sakura%20(FG08)/8644-sencha-sakura-fg08?post=55753
Zealong Pure from Chicago Tea GardenI've never had a New Zealander before! I didn't even know they had a tea production to start with, and even less that it was a tea production with export. Interesting. I got this one from *Wombatgirl* and I have enough leaves for this pot and another one later on.
I was just in the mood for an oolong, actually, so it was kind of lucky that I just happened to spot this tin in the forest of tins that lives on my kitchen table. I have actually completely dispensed with the idea of a 'tea cupboard' and just moved all the tins to the kitchen table. I might as well, since they migrate there anyway. That means I've cleared a small cupboard which now holds three retired pots and a gaiwan, thus solving some serious space issues on my various kitchen surfaces. A little rearranging made space for four other retired pots in a different cupboard, so the pots I have out now are the ones I actually use. The rest are hidden behind glass cupboard doors looking nice and decorative. Yay me and my organising skills!
Anyway, these leaves are dark green and rolled into semi-loose little pellets, so they look more or less like your would expect any typical green oolong to look. It's got a nice yellow-ish colour in the cup and the aroma is also unmistakably green oolong. It's got that touch of earthyness and a strong note of cooked green vegetables. For me it's broccoli boiled just so in lightly salted water with a little bit of butter in it.
Lots of flavour here. Again it tastes like a green oolong should taste, with a slightly rough green tea flavour combined with the earthyness of begun oxidation. The green part of the flavour is remarkably hard to pin down though. I'm thinking sort of like a cross between Long Jing and Sencha, if you can imagine that. The strong vegetative flavour of both but without the side note of cat-breath and salt water.
It's been way too long since the last time I had a green oolong that wasn't scented so how it holds up to the traditional ones, I can't be quite sure. But right now I think this tastes like it shouldn't have too many problems in a competition.
So yes. New Zealand has a tea production. And they're good at it too.Wed, 03 Nov 2010 08:56:57 -0400/teas/Zealong%20Pure/14204-zealong-pure?post=55816
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sGuess what I've got again.
And I must have got it from a new batch this time because previously when I've bought it, I've received oolong leaves with whole black currants and chunks of raspberry in it.
This time, chunks of raspberry? Try WHOLE raspberries. And not just one or two that got through the raspberry-chunking-machine unscathed. No, there are many of them. Many many raspberries.
(It's so hard to not fish them out and eat them!)
Still as nommy as ever. Om nom nom.Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:42:42 -0400/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=55854
Thomas Sampson from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaGoodmorning Steepsterites
In spite of receiving an ENORMOUS box from A C Perch's yesterday, and I do mean humongously huge, I'm taking a step back to the selection *Auggy* sent me. Something for the morning, you know.
The aroma of this is not so raisin-y as I have come almost demand from an Assam to my tastes. There are traces of raisin but that's really it. Instead it's leaning much more towards that cardboard-y smell that have been discussed before. Can't find any honey notes either.
This makes me sad. :( I wan't this to be awesome because I've seen people say it is, but now I wonder if maybe it's not _my_ sort of awesome.
It's very strong. Really something that scratches all the way down and for someone who likes their tea to be able to stand up straight without the aid of a cup, this would definitely be something to look at. For me it's just a wee bit on the strong side, and I get a more overdone impression from it rather than something merely strong and full in flavour.
Still can't find raisins in it. Still can't find honey. Can find lots of cardboard and a whiff of a slightly acidic flavour, a bit akin to the lemony flavour that you find in coffee. I wish I had some milk because I think this is a tea that would really benefit from it.
It's a good tea. But I'm glad it's not my Perfect Assam. You know what with being unable to get it again and all.Thu, 04 Nov 2010 04:40:40 -0400/teas/Thomas%20Sampson/2482-thomas-sampson?post=55913
White Temple tea from A C Perch'sThis one is from my latest A C Perch's order which I received yesterday. Yes, the one with the enormous box. I've been eyeing it for a while because *Rijje* posted about it and it being a favourite of hers, and although I must admit to there being some sceptism mixed in with the fascination here, I decided to just go ahead and try it out. I'd probably do that sooner or later anyway, so why not just get it over with? And then I decided that if I didn't like it, it wouldn't really be such a bad thing anyway, because I could always ship it off to Greenland where I knew it would get a good home.
This being settled, I felt much better about making the order, and now it's time to see if the white tropical explosion from 52teas is just a freak incident or if I actually really do enjoy tropical white blends as much as I think I do.
The leaves definitely smell strongly tropical. It's more like sniffing at the contents of a snack bag of dried fruit than it is sniffing at tea leaves. Making a difference from the 52teas blend, this one doesn't have coconut in it, which I take as a good sign as coconut in tea is very touch and go for me. Sometimes I think it works. Most of the time it just gets cloying. The pineapple is really strong here, as are the strawberries, and again, as I saw with the raspberry oolong, there are generous amounts of fruit chunks in here, and they're big too.
After steeping the aroma is more or less the same but without that harshness that dried fruit can have. It smells warm and soft and very fruity, and it's got an honey-golden colour in the cup. It doesn't actually remind me that much of the aforementioned white explosion anymore, though, apart from both of them being white blends with tropical fruit. And based on the same type white I think if memory serves me right.
I'm surprised at the level of astringency here. It's not super-astringent to the point where it becomes unpleasant, just nicely so. Initially I get the flavour of the white tea and not much of the fruit. The characteristic note of walnuts is coming through loud and clear. Then there's a sweet pang of tropical fruit behind it and mostly on the swallow. If I keep it in my mouth a little longer before swallowing the tropical flavours really expand in the mouth and come out in a sweet fruity pleasantness. At this point is rather like the white explosion again, only a bit less explode-y and without the coconut. This is the more subdued version, the calmer, less impatiently enthusiastic variation of the tropical white.
I can't get the tropical explosion again although I love it, unless Frank decides to make a new batch, but right now that's not quite as big a catastrophe as before, because this is most definitely a very worthy substitute. Perhaps even a little better for the lack of the coconut.
Sorry, *Rijje.* I'm keeping this one, but thank you very much for the inspiration to try it. :)Thu, 04 Nov 2010 07:31:52 -0400/teas/White%20Temple%20tea/6474-white-temple-tea?post=55917
White Dream Tea from A C Perch'sNaNo isn't going so well today. Oh the words are coming but my characters have suddenly come over all religious-like. I _HATE_ it when people get religious at me in real life, and I _CERTAINLY_ don't want a bunch of born-again christians in my story, but apparently writing certain things will have repercussions.
So I'm taking another break while trying to sort out how to get around that one without the whole thing turning into some something so un-me it's ridiculous.
This combined with a serious craving for sweets which started with the first cup of the white temple tea... So fight fire with fire. Or something.
This one is also bought based on *Rijje* liking it and I ended up taking it because even if I didn't like it, send to her, good home, and so on and so forth.
There aren't any fruit chunks in it, but there are some nice purple flowers and it's scented with melons and bananas. If you know this you can easily identify the aroma of the dry leaves as a mixture of these to fruits. If you don't know this, it's probably a bit more tricky. The jury is still out on whether or not it smells good or if it's just horribly sickly cloying.
It does make me want to eat a banana, though.
After steeping it smells hugely of bananas! And not much else, really. This is 100% Bananaland. Thankfully the flavour is a little more controlled. Like with the white temple, the nuttyness of the white tea is coming through wonderfully and then the whole thing is wrapped around with banana flavour. It tastes _exactly_ like I imagined it would.
The funny thing is I'm not getting bananas and melons at the same time here. At first it's bananas but then as I'm about to swallow it morphs and it's only melons. Isn't that odd?
You could probably steep this a few times easily, but it's really very much a one-cup deal. One is enough. More than that and it would start to taste really horrible, I think.
Once again I'm going to put myself pretty close to *Rijje's* score and keep it myself.
Now, my little NaNo characters. Shape up or ship out! _rolls up sleeves and cracks knuckles_Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:55:14 -0400/teas/White%20Dream%20Tea/13674-white-dream-tea?post=55933
Cacao from TisanoAnother one from *Wombatgirl* and one I've been curious about since first I took it out of the box. *Wombatgirl* sent me a nice little tin with the sample in it, which is definitely air-tight. And child-proof. And very nearly Ang-proof as well, so prying it open resulted in a little spillage (and some air turning blue).
What we've got here are some flakes of something that I'm guessing are cacao bean shells or husks or something. I feel we're kind of stretching the term 'herbal tea' with this one. I mean I know that the definition of a herbal herbs and plants steeped and prepared as a tea, without it actually being tea. And I know that cacao beans are also plant parts so it's still covered by that definition.
But at the same time, aren't we really more like moving into hot chocolate territory with this one? I'm posting about it because it's already on the site. If it hadn't been, I don't think I would have added it and just sent *Wombatgirl* a pm about what I thought of it instead.
It tastes like a cup of cocoa too. Slightly bitter though for the absence of sugar. I'm reminded of that sort of hot cocoa where you've got a powdered mix and put hot water on it. This tastes a bit like that made with only about 20% of the proper amount of powder. If I were to add a little sugar (and I shall try this once there's better room in the cup for stirring) it would come really close to a cup of thin, watery hot cocoa. If you make this really really strong and add sugar and milk, I'd wager you were nearly there.
If what you're looking for is an actual herbal tea that tastes like cocoa, then this is a very good bet for it. I bet it's also really great for mixing in with other things, adding a little flavour to an otherwise slightly dull tea.
This is pretty good for what it is. But I'd really rather have some real hot cocoa.Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:02:01 -0400/teas/Cacao/15057-cacao?post=55956
English Caramel from Teapouro*Wombatgirl* sent me some english caramel labeled stuff with no brand on it, and since she once posted about this I'm assuming it's the right one.
It smelled very nice and caramelly. I lost patience with the bag the leaves were in and used the lot, so it's a super-super-super-flash steeping. It still smells very nice after steeping, very sweet and very fat smelling.
I'm not really going to write a novel about this. *Wombatgirl* wasn't impressed with it, as she would have liked the flavouring to be stronger, and I have to say I agree with her. From the aroma of it I was really expecting something very rich in flavour here. But then I get this tea with a little caramel on it. How very and surprisingly french!
(Some of you will understand what I mean when I say the flavouring is french. A while ago I was on a Kusmi roll and more or less at the same time others were exploring some other french brands such as Mariages Freres and that other one that I can't remember how to spell. D. Freres. Anyway some of us agreed that it seemed to be typical for french brands that flavoured teas very rather subtle. And that's what I mean with french.)
Where was I? Oh yes, the flavouring is french. But the aroma is so _rich!_ Much more than in my beloved Caramel from Kusmi (I should get more of that), and that throws me off. In Kusmi, I expect the subtle frenchness. In this... I think I thought I'd get a sweets replacement out of this.
Yes, I like it, but it's not what I was expecting. And when it comes to french subtlety... No, I prefer Kusmi.Sat, 06 Nov 2010 15:01:43 -0400/teas/English%20Caramel/14735-english-caramel?post=56122
Tan Yang Jing Zhi from TeaSpringNot a good day. Girly nonsense, see. It is testament to how sorry I've been feeling for myself with all the aches and pains that comes with being a girl, that this is the tea I decided should see me through the day.
For those who aren't aware of it, this is the more refined leaf grade of my much loved Tan Yang Te Ji, and it cost about twice as much too.
Seriously. Expensive. Leaf.
That's how miserable I've been all day.
Add to that the fact that half of first steep and half of second steep both got cold while I was napping. I really have not been paying uber-much attention to it.
*Auggy* had some recently however and she wrote about the differences between the three first steeps and I've found today that I really agree with her a lot on that.
So you should go read her post. (And then follow her because she's really nice)
I shall be having a fourth steep in the not too distant future and look forward to the aches and pains being gone tomorrow. I wonder what the fourth steep will be like?Sun, 07 Nov 2010 12:45:04 -0500/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Jing%20Zhi/11184-tan-yang-jing-zhi?post=56208
Tippy Yunnan from Nothing But TeaHalf the day is gone already! How did this happen?! (Might it have something to do with it turning 11 before I managed to get out of bed?)
So I'm Yunnan-ing today. It's one of those days where I look at all the tins and unable to make a decision just grabs one at random. It was the first one of the lot that I looked at twice so I figured it was selection.
Hopefully this will provide some energy and give me a kick in the rear about NaNoWriMo. I'm currently about 7500 words behind my personal daily goal system which is rather annoying. But before you bring out the pep-talk and the cheerleading and the encouragement, I'll just tell you all something, because you might not want to do the pep and cheer afterwards. I may be behind on the personal goal, but I'm still 12K ahead of the minimum to NaNo goal for this day, and set to reach 50K at record (for me) speed. Still want to cheer? Go ahead. :) _smug_
So is this an inspiring tea, then? Does it smell and taste like the tea that can zoom me through at least 5K today?
I'm surprised at how sweet it turned out today. It's very much as if there's sugar in it, which, as anybody who knows me just a little bit will know, is not the case, and certainly not on a first sip. Ever. It's not the honey of an Assam and it's not the caramel of a Keemun (which I have only nearly been able to find). This is more like just plain sugar, but a little smoother than refined sugar. It's like, if you can imagine the sweetness of refined sugar but without the stickyness of it. I want to say it's something more fruit-like than plain sugar, but I can't seem to think of a fruit that comes close in flavour. I'm leaning a bit towards ripe pears here, but without it actually tasting like _pear._ It's that kind of sweet.
It's very difficult to identify it anyway, because on top of all that there's a prickly layer of spicyness and if you focus really hard on the flavour to try and figure out where that sweetness comes from you end up with a mouthful of pepper prickly and not much else.
It's funny, though, that a tea can be so pepper prickly on the tongue and at the same time as smooth as velvet. The two things just don't seem to get along in the head, do they? But the thing is the prickly stays mainly on the tongue and isn't noticed when swallowing, so combined with the lack of astringency to speak of, we have in fact at arrived something that is smooth in a prickly way. How fun is that! I think that's awesome.
I used to consider golden yunnans to be of the smoky spectrum, and I was surprised when others consistently identified that note as pepper. The more I'm tasting it however the more I find myself moving into the pepper camp. I remember the first golden Yunnan I ever had. It was from Chaplon and I had not yet discovered the awesome appeal of smokies. I thought it tasted very smoky and I didn't much like it at the time. Right now though I would dearly like to go back in time and try that one again because I really think that it would have been a hugely different experience for me today.
But is this _inspiring?_ Yes, you know what, I think it is. I shall go get some words out now, and hope that my characters will behave themselves. Wed, 10 Nov 2010 06:00:15 -0500/teas/Tippy%20Yunnan/8992-tippy-yunnan?post=56511
Green Rhubarb Cream from A C Perch'sOf such an enormous order I made recently there are surprisingly few new things for me to try. Only three new things and this is one of them. Of course there will possibly be two more things later on but those are not for me really.
So three _new_ things and this is the only untried one left. Then I've got some untried stuff from the latest package from *Wombatgirl* and I think one or two untried ones from *Auggy*, although I've messed the latter up a bit, so I'd have to check there.
Anyway the aroma is very sencha-y here and it's got a sweetly fruity additional note to it. It's sort of bubble-gum-y and only slightly like rhubarb.
The flavour is very rhubarb-y though and also very sencha-y. I steeped a little too long so it's quite strong, but it's really very much like I had expected it to be. I really do like the combination of rhubarb and sencha. I think they suit each other nicely while still somehow managing to be very much in contrast with each other.
I don't see this is a tea I'll be drinking a lot but it's definitely one I'm going to enjoy when I do have it. Very nice indeed.
Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:57:38 -0500/teas/Green%20Rhubarb%20Cream/13935-green-rhubarb-cream?post=56539
White Dream Tea from A C Perch'sThis tea has been very carefully selected as one of the very most delicate sorts of tea I own, and I'll tell you why.
Come time for cooking dinner, I discovered that I had no tap water. A little investigation told me that this was because it had been turned off so that they could fix a leaky pipe somewhere and that we should not expect to have running water again until 2.30 as the earliest. 2.30 was three hours gone by the time I discovered this, so who knew when there might be tap water again? So I waited a little while for the water to return while bemoaning the fact that I couldn't cook dinner without water and that this fact made three times as hungry as I was to begin with. At least.
Then I realised that if I had to use the bathroom, I wouldn't be able to wash my hands after. Then I decided to make a mad dash to the nearest grocery store for some bottled water rather than wait it out. You know, just in case.
Of course after having returned with my loot, the tap water has been turned on again (and it's a lovely yellow too), but at least now I can do things without having to wait for all the yellowness to be gone.
Seeing as I actually had bottled water in the house now, I decided to see if I could tell any difference in tea making as opposed to my regular tap water. Hence making the most delicate tea I could find in my cupboard. I do have a plain Pai Mu Tan also, but that one's getting rather on in age, so I figured a fresher one would be a better test subject, even if it did have a ton of fruit in it.
And I only just now realised that I took the dream tea when I meant to take the temple tea. Oh well, they have the same base, so same difference in this instance.
So! Interesting experiment ahead! Can I make out a difference between my tap water and this bottled stuff that cost money and didn't come out of the faucet for next-to-free?
No.Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:29:32 -0500/teas/White%20Dream%20Tea/13674-white-dream-tea?post=56640
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringThis is the second steep as I had the first steep in my travel cup this morning.
Nine times out of ten the second steep of this tea turns nicely smoky. But this one isn't. It's not even close. Not even slurping the sip can bring out any smoke. What it _is,_ however, is remarkably sweet.
There's a sweet note in it surrounded by that cocoa-y spicy flavour. Sort of like if you take a Keemun, brew it just so and then strip away all the smokiness. It's got that grainy note of rye and brown sugar.
I'm completely floored by this. It's like the leaves just decided all on their own to skip the second steep identity all together and go straight to a later one.
And I can't guarantee that making this pot didn't also involve some dregs in the pot that had been there since early this morning because there wasn't room for them in the travel cup. They ought to have been unbelievably bitter by now thirteen hours later. And as you can't dilute your way out of a bitter tea... Why is there not even the tiniest slightest hint of astringency or bitterness in this cup?
I don't understand a single microscopic speck of this, I just really don't.
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THIS STUFF COULDN'T GET ANY MORE AWESOME! O.O
Tan Yang, the chameleon of teas. Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:47:52 -0500/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=57035
Black Powder Blend from Luka Te m.m.Look what I found!
Let's revisit the story of this tea, shall we? I used to get this from Luka, the local shop where I live, but as I was pretty much the only person interested in smokies they took it off the shelf. When I was told this, they let me buy the lot of what they had left which turned out to be some 600g or so. I was then promised that when that ran out, if I wanted some more, I could just let them know and they would make sure to get something for me then next time they ordered from their supplier.
I took most of it with me to work and drank it there for several months, and after I was done with it, I've never taken advantage of the offer to have them get me some more specially. I was sort of sated, you know? But then yesterday I found this little bit squirreled away in the lunch room cupboard at work, all lost and forgotten. So I took it home with me and have now made me a cup. There isn't very much of it, only enough for one, maybe two, small pots after this one.
You know, I'm thinking when I've had this again (and when I've actually got some spending money again, can we has pay day soon?) maybe I will stop in at that shop and see if the offer still stands. It might be nice to have some of it back again.
It's been so long since I've had it I'd pretty much forgotten all the details of it, but then the first sip was of something so extremely familiar (well it would have to be, wouldn't it, having got through a whole pound!) that I just fell right back into it.
I've made it a bit strong this morning, but I'm probably steeping considerably shorter than I used to do when I had it last, so there should be more steeps in it than I remember. Plan is to keep going at this one for the better part of the day.
It's turned into something oddly dual layered. There's the pang of prickly lapsang smoke and underneath that the heartier blend of green and english breakfast with the sweeter notes of LS. The bottom layer is all thick and viscous and it feels like there might actually be milk in it, even though there isn't.
I have to say I recall it being more evenly blended, but then again, who knows how long those leaves have been hiding at the back of that cupboard and I'm not brewing the exact same way anymore either.Wed, 17 Nov 2010 04:35:35 -0500/teas/Black%20Powder%20Blend/5979-black-powder-blend?post=57215
Strawberry Zabaglione from 52teasHaving a mad craving for sweets and cake and desserts tonight, so I made up a cup of this one instead. On a whim I added some of the cacao tisane thingie that *Wombatgirl* sent me, thinking maybe it would give it some sort of chocolate covered strawberry sort of feel to it.
I can't really recommend doing this, to be honest. I mean, it's not _bad_ as such. It's just not what I was expecting to get. The cacao shells have completely overwhelmed the flavouring that was already there, so now it just tastes like any other plain chocolate flavoured tea. I think I gave it too much cacao shell.
Oh well, you win some, you lose some.Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:24:37 -0500/teas/Strawberry%20Zabaglione/12889-strawberry-zabaglione?post=57271
Cold Drink Bamboo Passion (No. 732) from SpecialTeasI have to admit that I'm quite wary of this on. It's so WAY out of my comfort zone you wouldn't believe it! Maybe *Wombatgirl* is secretly trying to do me in...
We're definitely in Tisaneland here. And even that seems a bit far fetched because there aren't actually any _leaves_ in here. Or flowers for that matter. Well, that's not true, there are some few leafy things that look sort of like bits of grass. The rest is dried fruit. Dried fruit. I feel like I'm steeping up a health snack bar or something here.
The aroma of it has something in it that is extremely sharp. I don't know what it is but it's really really sharp, stabbing at the nostrils and very unpleasant to be honest.
As it's poured it also takes on a certain specific red colour that all the members of the Anti Hibiscus League out there would be able to spot from a mile away. I'm hoping very much that it's caused by beetroot here, though. Also, difficult to pour as the fruit bits kept wedging themselves into the spout.
After steeping that stabby sharp note is thankfully gone. It smells sweet and fruity. Like... warm juice. I'm not sure I really want warm juice... _whimper_
Oh.
Oh dear.
This is tart. But it's not hibiscus-y tart, but still kind of tart. All I can really taste other than the tart note is apples, and really, apple juice? I prefer that cold thank you very much. I don't think this blend was invented with me in mind.
I'm very sorry *Wombatgirl* but this just won't go down on it's own. I shall try the remainder of the sample that you sent me as additive to plain black, but as it is, I can't drink this. My face keeps screwing up. Are you sure you're not trying to poison me?Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:02:23 -0500/teas/Cold%20Drink%20Bamboo%20Passion%20(No.%20732)/8920-cold-drink-bamboo-passion-no-732?post=57372
Yunnan from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaLet's let *Wombatgirl* redeem herself with something a little more me-ish. And what better than A&D? With this one I have now tried every single A&D tea except Series 1. But that's okay, because Series one didn't have anything I was interested in anyway. I'm not particularly fond of Ceylons, don't much care for Dragonwell, and have found the Nepals I've tried to be rather too Darjeeling-y. So this is the last of the ones that count for me.
The aroma of the dry leaves isn't very strong, but it's very nice. There's spicy pepper-y very Yunnan note to it that makes me think I'm definitely not going to get disappointed by this one.
There's something sweet in the aroma after steeping that I can't quite pin down. (I saw that about everything, don't I?) I'm leaning a little towards something semi-chocolateish. Maybe something to do with raisins as well. And that is of course all along with the spicy pepper that is typical for the region.
Aaaaah, this is good tea. Very typical Yunnan-ish to it, and actually, I'm shocked at how quickly I've come to recognise the typicalness of the type. It's very Yunnan-ish, but there's something else underneath. Something that tastes a bit like that note from before smelled. I really do think we're leaning towards something to do with chocolate on that one, although I still can't really pin it down.
But yes, this is much much much much much much much much much much much better.Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:26:36 -0500/teas/Yunnan/9310-yunnan?post=57378
Golden Needle King from Shang Tea*Wombatgirl* sent me this one in our last swap and I've been sort of saving it a bit. The sample came in this nice little golden bag, see, which made me feel like it ought to be saved for some kind of celebrating occasion.
And now I've got one! NaNoWriMo progress: 50,277 words. Ten days to spare. 1½ scene to go and I'll have a finished first draft as well. And thus I have bragged about that, and can go back to the tea.
I put the leaves straight into my little pot, so I forgot to smell the dry leaf first, but the aroma of the steeped brew is really nice. It's got a heavy sort of bottom note to it with some semi-fruity spicy notes to it. I wonder if this is what people are talking about when they say figs and dates? I don't eat (or like) either, so I wouldn't really know. I do like that note in tea, though. (I was concentrating so hard on working out the aroma here, that I actually managed to accidentally dip my nose in it...) I'm picking up a hint of cocoa and a wee bit of smoke too, but I'm not sure if it's contamination from the Tan Yang Te Ji (&hearts;) that I had earlier.
No, that is definitely NOT contamination. The wee bit of smoke probably is, but not the cocoa. SO not the cocoa. There is a very distinct cocoa note here and there's some caramel as well on the finish and the aftertaste.
It actually does remind me a little of the aforementioned Tan Yang. It's not as aggressive and as heavy as the Tan Yang, it's more like a Tan Yang Light, but it's got several of the same key elements.
At the very beginning of the sip there is the cocoa and underneath that a body of the fruity-spicy note that formed most of the aroma as well, and then on the finish there's a heavy caramel.
This is absolutely gorgeous, and I'm lucky because *Wombatgirl* actually sent me TWO samples of this one. I shall save the other one for a special occasion I think.
Sat, 20 Nov 2010 13:29:54 -0500/teas/Golden%20Needle%20King/4264-golden-needle-king?post=57565
Watermelon Raspberry Green Tea from 52teasSomething flavoured and fruit I thought. So I looked through what I had and came up with the basket of non-tinny stuff. Been a while since I've been in that one. It also hold my 52teas stuff and remembering that I knew what to go for. 52teas is always good for a fruity fresh blend.
The green is shining through today and being sencha-y. The fruit is more of a sort of afterthought, and while normally I rather enjoy the very fruit-heavy blends, today this more fruit-discreet result is just the thing that hits the spot. What a lucky coincidence.Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:21:33 -0500/teas/Watermelon%20Raspberry%20Green%20Tea/14854-watermelon-raspberry-green-tea?post=57714
Lemon Oolong (FO01) from Nothing But TeaAttention *Wombatgirl*
I'm having our lemon oolong today.
Mmmmmm! :)Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:32:32 -0500/teas/Lemon%20Oolong%20(FO01)/8983-lemon-oolong-fo01?post=57820
Kokeicha (GJ09) from Nothing But TeaI'm actually cooking today. Honest to Odin making real food for my evening meal and I don't even have company. Stuff that requires the use of _two_ skillets, a lid and the oven! (Chicken, mash and broccoli if anybody's that curious) I'm normally pretty lazy in the kitchen so this is a big deal. A feast, even.
I figured a feast deserved a little aperitif, and why not tackle that with one of the Nothing But Tea samples? I couldn't actually remember what all I had, but when I looked through the miscellaneous basket and came across this one, I remembered exactly why I had ordered it.
This is not leaf. This is 'formed tea', matcha turned into a sort of dough and then run through some sort of machinery to come up with these needle-like things. Normally, I haven't actually joined the matcha band wagon. I don't find the flavour of matcha all that different from regular sencha and it seems to me to be a pain in the rear to prepare and generate way more washing up than should be required for a cup of tea.
This though, was too interesting to not try, and you steep it just like you would regular leaf.
I smelled the... not leaves... Bits? Needles? Dry paste? Substance? I smelled the thingies before steeping. They had a very green, but a very dark aroma. It had some earthy notes that was a bit like a cross between a green oolong and a mild pu-erh. It didn't really smell like just another regular green leaf at all, which was encouraging because I couldn't help but wonder if I was turning my nose up at the trendy matcha only to turn to something even more pretentious.
I also wondered if the thingies would dissolve while steeping so I would have to sit here and stir like an idiot while drinking anyway. This appears to not be the case. The tea is a dark forest-y pine needle green, but there are tons of bits in the filter and the pot after draining, and they are still thingie shaped. At this point it has a very salted aroma and bizarrely remind me of popcorn. Apart from that it's very like the dry ...thingies.
I never really realise how slow I actually am at this, and now that I've just taken the first sip, dinner's ready. So much for my little aperitif there.
I shall be brief with the rest then. It's actually a fairly thin flavour this. That's a bit of a disappointment considering how strong the aroma was. Flavour-wise, it's not that terribly different from your average regular sencha. Bit darker in flavour and a bit earthier, but still not _that_ much difference. And it even got a somewhat longer steep than intended because the potatoes chose the pouring moment to start boiling over.
It's pleasant but nothing terribly special. We'll see if the resteeps will prove any different. Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:42:21 -0500/teas/Kokeicha%20(GJ09)/15876-kokeicha-gj09?post=57949
Pu Ehr Orange (EP08) from Nothing But TeaI have gone back to this one. An old favourite, and I've just discovered, very suitable for the season! In Denmark it seems we get the very best oranges in winter, so that makes it a very winter-y minded fruit for me. With the snow outside (already!) we can't deny the fact that it's officially winter now. This is very early indeed for us to get snow, and it's just a little drizzle that melts as soon as it hits the ground either. I've got some five centimeters outside right now. It's all white all over the place.
So sitting here looking out at the snow and drinking orange pu-erh, that's contentment.Sat, 27 Nov 2010 04:44:15 -0500/teas/Pu%20Ehr%20Orange%20(EP08)/8973-pu-ehr-orange-ep08?post=58126
Tangerine Blossom from Shang Tea*Wombatgirl* sent me this one, and I've been curious about it since I took it out of the box. Tangerine blossoms. That sounds really appealing to me, so I didn't really want to use it because then I wouldn't have it anymore and the joy of expectation would be gone as well. I admit the latter is probably the biggest problem.
There's a floral smell of the blossoms, slightly perfume-y and sweet with a surprisingly caramel-y middle. I seriously wasn't expecting that! Nevertheless, there it is. Unmistakably caramel and honey, with citrus-y tangerine aromas surrounding it. This stuff's aroma blows my mind! Or... nose, rather. Very very nice!
Oh my word! Did I just take a sip of tea or did I bite a tangerine? This is very tangerine-y in a very natural way. Not a hint of synthetic perfumeiness to be found here. It's citrus-y and sweet, sugared even. Although there's a lot of caramel in the aroma, it's not really in the flavour. It's more of a mild not too refined sugar here.
So there's a lot of flavour added here, but it still manages to be a rather delicate little thing. This is a tea that requires a quiet moment of relaxation. You can't just chug it while doing all sorts of other stuff. Well, you can, but it would be a crying shame.
It's no secret that I've been rather pleased with the Russian blends from Kusmi (with one notable exception), and how they all had some varying amounts of citrus fruit in them. But they don't really measure up to this. This tastes like what Kusmi _tried_ to achieve.
This tea is an absolute beauty. Please, Steepsterite, if you like citrus fruits and something sweet but not cloying, do yourself a favour and try this one.Sat, 27 Nov 2010 11:11:38 -0500/teas/Tangerine%20Blossom/8140-tangerine-blossom?post=58144
Houjicha (GJ08) from Nothing But TeaI've tried Houjicha once before. Just a sample, and I didn't really like it much then. But when I was ordering samples from Nothing But Tea anyway, I thought it was interesting enough to give it a second go.
The dry leaves smell primarily like burnt toast, and this aroma is also released in large amounts when the water is poured on. After it has finished steeping the aroma is not so much burnt toast as it is burnt microwave popcorn. It even smells a bit salty. There isn't really anyway around this, it's the aroma of something that has gone horribly wrong.
Again I'm reminded of the fact that I've tried this before with little success.
So it's with some reservation that I take the first sip and indeed it tastes burnt as well. I know it's supposed to be roasted and it definitely is. I would even say that maybe it got a few seconds too long. I imagine that this would be suitable as a breakfast tea. If you burned your toast, you could cover it up with the flavour of this tea.
I'm trying really hard to find other flavour components here, and gradually as I sip and get myself used to the flavour, they seem to come out more. I can find something green-ish underneath all the burn, a slightly butter-y but rough green note.
My initial impression here, is the same as the first time around, I think. I don't think this is something for me. However, the first time around I had not yet been introduced to the wonderful world of smoky teas, so now I'm thinking that while I'm not falling head over heels for the Houjicha right now, there is room for development. I'm not above trying other samples in the future, but at the moment it's not something I would care to invest in on a larger scale.Sun, 28 Nov 2010 06:39:11 -0500/teas/Houjicha%20(GJ08)/15879-houjicha-gj08?post=58233
Dragon Powder from CustomWhen asked what kind of tea he would like after we came back from our walkies (took him up a steep hill, omg, my left lung collapsed half way up and I've had a bit of a cough since!) the boyfriend replied, "What have you got in the green department these days?"
Green department. Not a lot, really. It's all sample-sized (which I'd rather save so I could put some thought into it and post about it) or flavoured (which he wasn't that interested in). He's relatively new in green tea and have become rather hooked on sencha recently after having tried the Bolivian green I had, which was sencha-like in presentation, and all I had that wasn't just samples were Chinese. I didn't want to get him something radically different from what he had discovered he liked, but I didn't really have a choice.
Then it turns out that my three tins with plain greens were all nearing empty. None of them had enough for a whole large pot. This did not really make things easier.
So it was either asking him to pick something else or getting creative. I chose creative thinking that if he didn't like it then at least we had tried it and we could make something else instead. And also I'd be rid of that last bit of ancient Gunpowder of dubious quality at last!
So I took the rest of that and added the same amount of the TeaSpring Long Jing or as close an approximation of the same amount that I could get. I did consider chugging the last bit of the Bi Luo Chun in there as well, but decided not to overdo it. So Dragonwell + Gunpowder = Dragon Powder. Naturally.
Dragonwell is a type that for me has a very distinctive kind of flavour. It's got that thick, heavy sort of cat-breath-y quality and it can get a bit overwhelming. I was expecting that to come through here as the primary flavour. Especially also considering the fact that the Gunpowder in question was several years old and somewhat faded.
What actually happened was that the Gunpowder really stepped up to the challenge, masking almost all of the cat-breath-y thickness of the Dragonwell, and for the first time in my life I finally _got_ what people mean when they designate Gunpowder as a smoky. I have never been able to find that before.
So the result here worked really well. The Gunpowder got to shine, boosted upwards by the Dragonwell laying a foundation for what little the Gunpowder had left in it. Smooth and somewhat sweet, not really salty and not at all fishy.
I was surprisingly pleased with this.Sun, 28 Nov 2010 14:51:24 -0500/teas/Dragon%20Powder/16444-dragon-powder?post=58248
Pu Ehr Orange (EP08) from Nothing But Tea_"Hey Angrboda, what's in your cup?"_
Well, hot cocoa actually...
This is a backlog from this morning. This is what I chose to have in my travel cup for the morning trek to work through unholy amounts of snow. Or okay, maybe just around 20 cm where I live, but it's a WHOLE LOT MORE than what we're used to seeing in November. Which is nothing.
Anyway, nothing out of the ordinary on the tea choice, except for the fact that I got some involuntary experimentation out of it this morning.
At first I thought my travel cup was somehow mysteriously broken. But then I realised that it was more likely that I had made tea as usual this morning. Put the kettle on while brushing my teeth and then poured it on the leaves when I was finished with that. Only I forgot to actually turn the kettle on.
Which means I got to try this little number cold-brewed this morning. It was okay, I guess. But the thing is I'm not really an iced tea sort of person. Especially not when I'm waiting 25 minutes for the train in ankle deep snow.Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:33:44 -0500/teas/Pu%20Ehr%20Orange%20(EP08)/8973-pu-ehr-orange-ep08?post=58358
Long Jing from TeaSpringSo now I'm all out of green apart from flavoured greens and samples which don't really count as I drink samples under different circumstances than regular stash. Pay more attention to them for one thing.
I took the rest of this and chucked in the rest of the Bi Luo Chun (also TeaSpring) and as with the Dragon Powder experiment the other day, the result wasn't actually half bad. I'm not generally a Dragonwell fan but I'm finding that in combination with a different green it adds some good body to the mix.
Right now I don't think Dragonwell is a type I'm going to miss having, but on the other hand if I find a good offer for it, I might actually get a small stash again for blending experiments.
*Additional:* Would you like a christmas card? Nothing fancy, just a card. If yes, PM me with an address and I'll send you one. :)Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:49:44 -0500/teas/Long%20Jing/6863-long-jing?post=58633
Zealong Pure from Chicago Tea GardenI came home from a great (but cold!) walk and feeling the need for a cup of tea. This is more or less the only sensible thing I've done today, that walk. And likely also the only sensible thing, I _will_ be doing. I can feel it in my bones.
Anyway, I wanted a cup and I decided to let myself be inspired by yesterday's Select and use the rest of the sample that *Wombatgirl* so kindly shared with me. It may not be all that seasonally appropriate as it has a more spring-y, summer-y sort of flavour profile, but it's good enough for me right now.Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:30:42 -0500/teas/Zealong%20Pure/14204-zealong-pure?post=58651
Darjeeling Autumn Leaves (BI07) from Nothing But TeaDon't you just hate it when you're carrying a full cup of tea and then you sneeze before there's time to do anything else than just hold the cup away from your body and hope?
Anyway, I'm not really very much of a Darjeeling fan at all. I had a short period a few years ago where the thought of a first flush Darjeeling filled me with song and sunshine, but the infatuation ran out, to the point where these days I find that green grassy-spicy Darjeeling-ness a little bit unpleasant in a blend. It's so spicy and it gets wickedly bitter on me at the drop of a hat.
How wonderful for me then, that the black sampler box from NBT had some 10-15 or so Darjeeling samples in it... Single estate, see. In many cases both first and second flushes, which I can't really tell apart anyway. I have used some of them and I've given away a few and this one is, I hope, the last one of the Darjeelings. After this I should be completely unblended Darjeeling-less.
Obviously I'm not going at this as the most optimistic person in the world. But this one, being autumnal, I'm hoping should be sufficiently different from all the others. Already in the product description I'm learning something new which adds to my hopes. Supposedly the 'make-up' of Darjeeling has changed over the last forty years or so as the German market appears to have preferred the light, almost green, version we get today, while these darker leaves are more similar to what was exported to the UK some forty years ago. Interesting.
The aroma of it is sweet and very grain-y. It doesn't really have much of that spicyness that I've come to avoid. It's a slightly heavy sort of rounded aroma. Smooth and solid. The spicyness comes out if you concentrate and search for it, but it doesn't assert itself front and center.
It _is_ present in the flavour, however, and it _does_ have a good deal of astringency and a slight bitterness. This is not a smooth tea. This is the sort of tea where you can almost imagine the brown miscoloration that you get on the inside of the cup cover your tongue.
And then that strong strong note of spice. The aroma was so promising on this one, but the flavour is all grassy-spice. It's not quite as offensive here as in the spring flushes, but it's still there and it's still dominant. Unfortunately the sweetness and grainyness that was in the aroma and sort of gave me vague hopes that there might be a Keemunesque edge to it were nothing but trickery.
I don't _care_ if Darjeeling is supposed to be 'the Champagne of Tea'. I would prefer a Chinese, _any_ Chinese to a Darjeeling any day. I think I might even prefer a Ceylon...Fri, 03 Dec 2010 05:28:45 -0500/teas/Darjeeling%20Autumn%20Leaves%20(BI07)/9008-darjeeling-autumn-leaves-bi07?post=58844
Sencha Uji (o) (GJ10) from Nothing But TeaMy last green sample from Nothing But Tea. This one definitely has a ton of aroma. I could smell it already when I was pouring and it has that almost radioactive greenish colour in the cup as well, but after pouring it quickly darkens into something more greenly deep yellow.
The aroma as mentioned is very deep. It's sweet and thick and a bit salty, and it sort of reminds me of something but I can't think what it is. My brain is grasping at some rather bizarre straws here such as fish and fruit. Let's disregard the fish here, and focus on the fruit. I'm thinking apples. Not the sort you just eat, but more the kind of apples that are better for cooking than eating raw.
It's the same with drinking it. It's got a lot of flavour, and it's got that salty, grassy sort of cooked broccoli all over the place. I'm not really getting that apple note here again, though. Just the main sencha flavour.
I don't mind that it's not a very complex flavour here. There's so much of it that I don't need to sit and hunt around for the details. It's a good solid sencha and I'm considering a purchase. Sat, 04 Dec 2010 06:36:15 -0500/teas/Sencha%20Uji%20(o)%20(GJ10)/15878-sencha-uji-o-gj10?post=58927
Vietnamese Marble Mountain (BV01) from Nothing But TeaI'm not sure if I've had a vietnamese tea before. An oolong I think, but another black? I'm not so sure. Consequently I haven't a clue what to expect here. I'm the second one to post about this one and the other poster thought it was great, so that's a good beginning.
IF, that is, his taste in tea is similar to mine.
The dry leaves have a strong aroma of tobacco and leather. Sort of dark and spicy. I don't know why I know what tobacco smells like actually. I _shouldn't_ logically know as the few people I know that smoke all smoke cigarettes. My grandfather smoked a pipe when I was a child so that must be how I remember, but still... Memory is a pretty funny thing.
Anyway, after steeping the dominant note has a hint of something more Darjeeling-y with that slightly grassy sort of greenness but the grain-y part of it is dominant. I'm getting rather a lot of freshly baked and still warm rye bread out of this.
That rye is there in the flavour as well. There is TONS of it. This is very robust with lots of flavour and like the Chinese that I prefer, no astringency to be found. It's well rounded off and gradually builds that rye bread aftertaste that makes you feel like you've actually had something to eat as well.
It has a fair bit of a smoky note as well, which makes the whole thing rather remind me of a less refined, less civilised Keemun. This is like a Keemun that has strayed from the path and gone rogue.
The funny thing is, though, that while this little number displays all this Chinese behaviour, it doesn't taste Chinese at all and it's got some of the same strength and power that you find in Indians and Ceylons. It's rather like the middle of the road between those two 'directions,' if you can call it that.
I'm finding I quite like this. I think that it would be an excellent tea for the breakfast table and that people who tend to prefer Chinese blacks over Indian or Ceylon, might get a number of good things out of this one. I'm not certain yet if it's one I'll want to own, but I would certainly not be opposed to having it again.Sat, 04 Dec 2010 12:15:26 -0500/teas/Vietnamese%20Marble%20Mountain%20(BV01)/8467-vietnamese-marble-mountain-bv01?post=58945
Guatemala Cloud Forest (organic) (BG01) from Nothing But TeaI figure I have time for a quickie before the boyfriend joins me. Wait, that came out wrong.
Anyway, the leaves here doesn't really have much in the way of aroma in the dry form. There leaves look CTC, but even so the aroma doesn't have much kick. It's got a certain sweetness to it, but nothing that I can really put a finger on it.
It's the same after steeping. The aroma is rather weak and what is there of it has that slightly spicy, kind of earthy wet-dog and leather note to it.
The flavour is, considering the aroma, surprisingly sweet. but also with a rather rough and coffee-like background. It's not astringent or outright bitter at all, but I wouldn't really call it smooth either because of that coffee note.
This stuff tastes kind of like it has been brewed in a coffee pot and nothing can wreck a tea as efficiently as a coffee bean.
I've had a green tea from Bolivia that I rather liked, but apart from that I have yet to be impressed with the tea production of South America.Sun, 05 Dec 2010 07:39:30 -0500/teas/Guatemala%20Cloud%20Forest%20(organic)%20(BG01)/9025-guatemala-cloud-forest-organic-bg01?post=59011
Anhui Keemun from Adagio Teas*Auggy* sent me this one, and I've been putting off trying it. I was warned that it was a pretty expensive tea and I then made the mistake of looking up the price. NEVER DO THAT! Following that I've spent a lot of time being scared of it. What if I oversteeped it like mad and ruined the leaves?! O.O At that price you'd think they were made of diamonds!
I would like to say that I was feeling brave today and decided to make it but that's not true. I just wanted something I hadn't tried before, really, while also being something that might kickstart my aching brain. (Slept in too long, slight headache) So here we are. With a cup of tea comparable, in price, to liquid platinum... Oh dear.
The aroma isn't as strong as I had initially expected. Full, but not very loud. I'm getting a lot of that grain-y note and some dark cocoa. Also, weirdly, something creamy. It's not _cream,_ but it's got sort of like that quality a smell can have when a bit of cream is added to it. Slightly sweet and smooth and a little fat. It really does have a very sweet aroma over all which I think have to do with the grain note primarily.
At the first sip I got a bit of a surprise. The aroma had led me to believe I was about to encounter something unbelievably smooth and creamy and I had completely forgotten about the semi-smoky aspect of Keemun. Probably because there aren't any smoky notes in the aroma. So at first I went O.o and then I went 'aaaaah...!'
So yes, there is the mild smokyness up front and underneath that there it is. The creamy smoothness. And it really is creamy! It feels all thick in the mouth and everything.
First I'm getting the mild smoke and then the thickness and finally the grain. There's a sort of earthy, dusty aftertaste building up here that kind of reminds me of floral scented teas. That seems a bit out of place to me, completely unexpected.
I can't find any of the cocoa that the aroma had, but I'm getting tons and tons of the creamyness. I haven't added milk to the cup but I could have sworn, in a blind tasting, that there was milk in it.
It seems that *Auggy* was really getting a lot more out of it than I am, and I blame our differences in steeping. I tend to go for a much shorter steep with more leaf (although I still don't think I use enough leaf to call it gong fu) and I'm thinking I'll try and do a longer steep the second time around on these leaves. See what else comes out.Wed, 08 Dec 2010 04:43:07 -0500/teas/Anhui%20Keemun/11523-anhui-keemun?post=59314
Zealong Aromatic from Chicago Tea Garden*Wombatgirl* sent me this one a little while ago and apparently I haven't yet posted about it. Which is weird because I can't really wrap my head around the fact that I haven't tried it before. I _ought_ not have tried it before anyway, because I always try to post about it the first time I have samples that people have sent me. But there wasn't enough left that I can understand _not_ having used some of it. Otherwise *Wombatgirl* sent me _really small_ sample. Which also doesn't fit, because I would have remembered that. Small samples tend to get tried first, because if people only give me a little it gives me the impression that it's because it's awesome and difficult to part with. You know?
Anyway, this one is living up to its name and is showing itself as very aromatic indeed. The aroma is quite floral, I think, and underneath that it has those thick full notes like green teas can have. I'm thinking especially of senchas and dragonwells here.
I have to say I liked the Pure better than this, but it's still very good. It's very fruity in flavour with a very strong note of apples and pears, and especially apple.
On the aftertaste there's the floral notes I found in the aroma. They're not very VERY forceful, but they do build up.
As the cup cools a bit more the apple and pear note transfoms into something more like maybe peaches and tangerines and with a bit of nuttyness on the side.
There's definitely a lot of stuff going on in this tea, but yeah, I think the Pure is my favourite of the two.Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:15:05 -0500/teas/Zealong%20Aromatic/13717-zealong-aromatic?post=59477
Earl Grey from LiptonBleh!
I've been away all weekend on family get together thing and it's on the other end of the country. My parents had opted for a slightly alternative route than the obvious one and it involved a 45 minute ferry-trip.
This is what they served in the cafeteria there.
It was heavily perfumed and tasted mostly of lemon with a backdrop of bergamot. It was a rather dusty and old sort of flavour. Drinkable, I guess, and I've certainly had worse, but not really particularly inspiring.
I was however finding it a rather nice break in the travelling experience and as such it served its purpose quite nicely.
Also, I'm going to be scarce on Steepster for a few days. My 52tea Christmas package hasn't arrived yet and I don't want any spoilers about the contents, so I'll be steering clear of the Dashboard until I've got it. (If it's the one that was delivered to the package pick-up place in Copenhagen by mistake, it shouldn't take very long)Sun, 12 Dec 2010 10:45:20 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/2060-earl-grey?post=59738
Black Satin from 52teasI'm still avoiding the Dashboard. I don't know when I can look at it again safe from spoilers, so in the meantime if you post about something that might interest me and *IS NOT* from 52teas, could you link me please? I don't want to know what's in that christmas box until I can look for myself (and even if it's something that ISN'T from the christmas box I'll know it's not in there. I don't want to know what's not in it either!)
Anyway, this one has been lying around in my kitchen for quite a long time. Black Satin was one of the first things I tried from 52teas ever, and I rather fell for it. So I ordered another pouch when it was gone. And then that second one has been lying around in the Bits'n'Bops Basket more or less since while I tried to remember why it was that I liked it so much.
For some unknown reason suddenly the idea of the blend seemed violently unpleasant to me and I had no wish to drink it again ever.
Tonight however it just sort of popped into my head that it was the natural tea to have this evening. And no, I don't know why that was either.
It tastes like old times. I remember my first ever order from 52teas. I remember badgering Frank into sorting out taxes and customs involved in shipping to Denmark, and the glee when he agreed. I remember the crushing disappointment when I got the first package and realised that it's seriously stupid to buy a blend with dates when you don't like dates. At all. And then it just got worse when I realised that I don't care for pumpkin either. Thankfully I managed to get rid of the mistakes and didn't give up on 52teas.
That was the metaphorical flavour. The actual real flavour has less licorice in it than I remember and not as much cinnamon. And yet the black tea isn't dominating the flavour. This really is well balanced, and if you like licorice it's a one to try.
Why _was_ it that it suddenly seemed so unappealing to me?Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:02:51 -0500/teas/Black%20Satin/6477-black-satin?post=59887
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch'sI slept in until nearly 11am today and now two hours later I'm still feeling rather groggy and unable to get my head in gear.
Therefore I picked a tea that can deliver one of the strongest kicks in the rear that I know of. A smoky. And I used a little extra leaf.
The consequence of this is the feeling that there should be smoke coming out of my mouth when I exhale after a sip. It's super-duper-prickly today.
Underneath that the sweet fruity base of the flavour is thick and strong.
If this doesn't get me up and going, nothing will.Wed, 15 Dec 2010 06:53:02 -0500/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=60084
Four Red Fruits from Kusmi TeaBacklog from last night.
See, I was considering, while I finished off the strawberry zabaglione from 52teas the other day, that perhaps I was doing myself a disfavour with flavoured blacks. Maybe the short steeping times I use (never more than a minute for the first steep of a black) was preventing the flavouring to really come to its full potential.
So I decided to try making a cup of tea with a longer steep and less leaf on this one. Experimentation is the way forward in many things, including the noble art of brewing tea. I turned it down to about half the usual leaf and turned the steep time up to three minutes.
I won't say it was a success, but it wasn't an unmitigated disaster either. What I actually ended up with was a good cup of red fruit flavoured black, but rather more wispy and frankly thin than I have come to expect. The flavours didn't come out more or in a different way. There were just less of it. Less _substance._
That's still useful information, though, and I can now go back to my semi gong fu method with more leaf and shorter steeping time knowing that I'm not cheating myself out of a better flavour experience.
And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going through an Alice Cooper phase and this song requires some serious rocking around the living room.
(And please to be hurrying the heck up, Mr Postman! I miss my dashboard and my Steepsterites. (And I want my fricking packages!))Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:17:02 -0500/teas/Four%20Red%20Fruits/6533-four-red-fruits?post=60255
Earl Grey from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaI am THIS CLOSE to giving up on the spoiler prevention about the 52teas christmas box! I haven't got it yet. Iirc there was some delay in shipping around the time when I placed my order due to illness and that's just too bad and can't be helped. I'm not complaining about that. I just miss checking the dashboard and hearing from you lot.
(And to be honest, right now I'm rather more concerned about my Kusmi package which according to tracking has been delivered, so that must be the one that was misdelivered to a package pick-up place in Copenhagen (other side of the country from me) and is now apparently caught in limbo somewhere between Copenhagen and here, likely due to the very icy weather we've been having lately)
On top of that I've run into some annoyance just now. It's recurring sort of annoyance and I ought to know by now to steer clear of it, because I _know_ it's going to be there. But I DO wish that some people could just let go of that unhealthy obsession instead of coming after anybody who supposedly 'does it wrong' all the time. It's called 'nagging' and it's not a positive thing to do. _grump_
So to cheer myself up and hopefully stave off the temptation to go through the dashboard, throwing myself in the arms of spoilers galore, I decided to make me a cup of tea. This also put me in a bit of a pickle because I was in a citrus mood, but not an oolong (Lemon Oolong from Nothing But Tea) or a pu-erh (Orange Pu-erh also from NBT) mood, and that just about concluded my current citrus-y choice.
Apart of course from this one. Well, it's bergamot, so it's citrus. But it's totally not what I had in mind. Me thinks I should put some thought into researching my perfect orange flavoured black, or alternatively dark oolong. Leave me a comment with your favourite orange flavoured black or dark oolong (or other interesting citrus flavoured things), please!
In the meantime, however, His Lordship is a very satisfying cup this afternoon. He turned out a bit too dusty and floral this time, but at the same time providing all the things that I was really looking for. Except the orange, but I shall eat one later instead. Sat, 18 Dec 2010 10:04:49 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/8407-earl-grey?post=60410
Pu Ehr Orange (EP08) from Nothing But TeaGreetings Steepsterites.
You may have noticed that I've been active on the ol' Dashboard today.
No, I have _STILL_ not received either of my missing packages from Kusmi and 52teas. I have merely caved to siren call of all that Dashboard activity that I wasn't part of.
And I have justified it too. I did get at least one spoiler (one that I'm aware of anyway), but that couldn't be helped. I figure if I give up, the packages will be there tomorrow so I can be annoyed at myself for not having held out just that little bit longer. Similar to how pots won't boil while you're looking at them, but when you decide there's time enough for you to quickly do something else, they boil over.
So I looked. And I spoiled myself. And now I expect my packages to arrive tomorrow, dammit!Sun, 19 Dec 2010 06:50:41 -0500/teas/Pu%20Ehr%20Orange%20(EP08)/8973-pu-ehr-orange-ep08?post=60478
Apricot Fusion from 52teasOkay. No packages today for me. It doesn't seem like my Brilliant Plan for forcing the packages to arrive has worked. How annoying! I wonder what's keeping them. I can understand one package getting delayed or, Odin forbid, lost, but TWO? At the SAME TIME?! It's just not fair. _pout sulk_
Anyway, this is now decupboarded. I'm not sure why, but my current obsession with all things citrus (nearly) seems to stretch to this with apricot as well. Maybe it's because apricots are orange, so my brain fools me into thinking it'll be the same sort of thing?
It is, of course, nothing remotely like my current craving for citrus, but it does have the right sort of fruityness. Full, but not overwhelming.
It was quite nice to have it in my cupboard, but I feel like we never really had time to find each other.Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:40:33 -0500/teas/Apricot%20Fusion/15162-apricot-fusion?post=60591
Heritage Aijiao from Red Blossom Tea CompanyOnce upon a time *Wombatgirl* suggested to *Angrboda* that they do a tea swap. *Ang* thought that was a good idea and agreed, so they exchanged addresses.
"I'm a little broke this month, though," said *Ang.* "Do you mind if we wait a little while?"
*Wombatgirl,* luckily, saw no fault with that.
And so they waited.
Days went by and payday came and went. *Ang* and *Wombatgirl* each put together a selection of teas from their stores and sent it off to each other. Mail between America and Europe takes many days, so they waited impatiently to receive their packages. There was nothing else that they could do. Days crawled by at a snail's pace until finally the notification came.
There was a package for *Ang* in the town's Package Pick-Up Place, a wonderful contraption where *Ang* could fetch packages to her at all hours of the day with the use of two pin codes texted to her upon the package's arrival.
*Ang* picked up her package and hurried on home to open it. It contained a great many interesting things, but star among them was a sample of Heritage Aijjiao from Red Blossom Tea Company.
*Ang* rather liked the notes of leather-y cocoa and something earthy in the aroma of those leaves, so she decided to make a pot of that first.
Oh, what a revalation that was! After she had steeped the leaves in water just under boiling point for a minute, the aroma of the cup she poured was rich with cocoa, sweet and earthy and plentiful.
Massively cheered by this aroma, *Ang* took the first sip from the cup. A smile slowly spread out on her face as she savoured that wonderful flavour. It was everything the aroma had been. A strong earthy note that shouted out its oolong origins topped with the sweetness of a heavy chocolate-y note. What a most wonderful tea! *Ang* found herself sipping more and more of it, trying to determine more details in the flavour. A touch of flowers here, an aftertaste of nuts there.
Perhaps, she thought, she could even guess which region of China it came from. *Ang* was never much of an expert on telling these things, but she thought that a cocoa note as strong as this seemed to be typical for the Fujian Province. And indeed it was.
She sipped and sipped and sipped, until suddenly the cup was empty. Oh that happened all too soon! Unhappily, she went for a resteep, hoping it would be as good as the first one, and to her relief it was. There was a little more gentleness about the flavour, but all in all, the flavour profile of it was intact.
*Wombatgirl* had kindly provided with enough dry leaf of this most wonderful beverage that *Ang* could get another pot. *Ang* was not, however, willing to part with those leaves so quickly so she hoarded them away for a long time. Protected they were in their little bag at the bottom of the Bits'n'Bops Basket.
But nothing good lasts forever, and one sad day, those leaves were gone too. Steeped within an inch of their lives, they were, but inevitably they had to be discarded. There was much sadness on that day.
Meanwhile, *Wombatgirl* had rather enjoyed the sample of Lemon Oolong from Nothing But Tea that *Ang* had sent her. As *Ang* was, at the time of being told about this, in the initial stages of planning a purchase at that very company, she offered to buy some more of that for *Wombatgirl* as well. Eager she was to spread knowledge of this fine tea shop around the world. And thus their second swap was decided upon.
Another waiting period followed, for *Ang* to get the package from Nothing But Tea and then for the two swap packages to reach their respective destination. *Ang's* package from *Wombatgirl* arrived in due time and *Ang* opened it as soon as she came home, excited to see what wonderful things might have been packed into it.
Behold! Heritage Aijjiao from Red Blossom Tea Company! A whole little tin of it. Enough for three or maybe even four, if she was thrifty, pots
Once again finding that urge within herself to hoard the leaves and never part with them, it took a long time before *Ang* could actually bring herself to open the tin and use some of them.
One morning in December, shortly before Christmas she felt it was time. There was snow on the ground outside, it was dreadfully cold and the sky was blue with not a cloud in sight. Most importantly, it was wednesday and therefore not a work-day for *Ang.*
The time had come at last to break into that tin of Heritage Aijjiao. And so she did, savouring every sip while writing the longest ever post on Steepster.
And they lived happily ever after (or at least until the leaves ran out. Again.)Wed, 22 Dec 2010 04:00:12 -0500/teas/Heritage%20Aijiao/12154-heritage-aijiao?post=60761
Bai Lin Ju Hong from TeaSpringIf I had time for a cup of tea this morning, this would be it because of the orange notes and the general Fujian-y nature of it.
We, the danish, are an impatient lot, so we celebrate christmas on the 24th and use the 25th to get over all the excessive eating (and make room for some more excessive eating). So I'll be leaving for my parents' house (and the roasted duck!) in some 20 minutes and will return on the 27th.
Merry christmas, Steepsterites. &hearts;Fri, 24 Dec 2010 04:09:38 -0500/teas/Bai%20Lin%20Ju%20Hong/14835-bai-lin-ju-hong?post=60939
Bai Lin Ju Hong from TeaSpringGreetings Steepsterites! I have returned to the nest laden with loot and some of it even tea-themed. The boyfriend gave me 1½ tea-themed present this year. One of them is this set of Roy Kirkham cups in the Please Shut the Gate series(*), which I had hinted rather strongly at (in fact I felt like I had lobbied so hard for it that I didn't actually expect to get it at all) and the promise of a Bodum Chambord fancy-pants super-kettle which means I'll be joining the horde of temperature-setting kettle owners. IF, you know, it ever shows up, which is why it currently counts as half a present. So far I've got a drawing of it. It's been a month underway though, so like my still unaccounted for packages from Kusmi and 52teas, it should hopefully arrive soon.
Obviously the choice for this first cup of tea upon returning home is the Bai Lin Ju Hong that I would have had before leaving on the 24th had I had time for it. I've been saving these leaves for a while because I couldn't really bear to part with them, but they have now been decupboarded and I fully plan to replenish the supply the next time I shop at TeaSpring.
The orange note in this tea is really quite spectacular, I think. I'm beginning to wonder if it might actually turn out to be one of my favourite orange teas even though it doesn't actually have any citrus-fruit in it at all.
.(*) http://www.roykirkham.co.uk/products/xple1035x6boxed_please_shut_gate_set_of_six_louise_large_mugs_in_fine_bone_china.php
No, I do not use link shortening things like bit.ly or tinyurl or any of that ilk. I prefer not to click on links that I can't see where are going, and I prefer to do others the same courtesy.Mon, 27 Dec 2010 12:38:59 -0500/teas/Bai%20Lin%20Ju%20Hong/14835-bai-lin-ju-hong?post=61139
Smoked Lapsang Souchong from TeaSpringI've been having this tea all day, and I am on the third steep of it now. I started out using even _more_ leaf than usual (3 teaspoons to about half a liter or water... my leaf usage appears to be going up. It's so _expensive_ being me!) and I haven't added fresh leaf to it since. I've doubled the steeping time (two minutes as opposed to just one) on this third cup, and the tea still has lots of life and flavour.
It's still rather smoky and the sweet fruity note has been coming out as well, although not as much as it would have had I only used the customary two teaspoons of leaf.
It is in fact still so smoky that in combination with a lunch of left over indian food nearly freaking murdered me just now. _cough hack_Wed, 29 Dec 2010 07:30:33 -0500/teas/Smoked%20Lapsang%20Souchong/11845-smoked-lapsang-souchong?post=61345
Pai Mu Tan from Luka Te m.m.Gosh, these leaves must be _ancient!_ If there is some fading, however, it doesn't really matter today as what I was looking for was something mild. Let's not go too much into detail here. Suffice to say that I had milkshake-tummy all day yesterday and that yesterday's diet consisted primarily of water and the glass of juice I had in the evening was somewhat regretted at bedtime.
So. Something mild for me, please. I'm feeling better in the stomach department today, but let's not rock the boat, eh?
This turned out as orange as... an orange today. I always get surprised by the colour with this one. I keep expecting it to be very very light and then I get shocked at how dark it actually is.
The aroma is weirdly custard-y. A bit buttery and a bit sweet and I wonder if the fact that I made lemon curd earlier today is messing with my senses. I can't really spot much nuttiness in the aroma. Perhaps a little almond here and there, but not really anything noteworthy.
Which is funny, because I distinctly remember it as being quite nutty. Or maybe that was just all in the flavour?
Yes it was. It is indeed quite mild, likely due to some fading, but the note of walnut is still quite obvious. Sad to say, however, that either the remainder of the leaves will have to be brewed somewhat stronger than this or it will mainly be used for occasions such as this where I'm feeling it best to stick with something mild.
I had originally given this one a grand total of 98 points, but seeing as how I've been so disinterested in it for so long, I'm going to take it down somewhat. No tea that one loses interest in like this is really worth 98 points.
*IMPORTANT EDIT!!!* GAH!! I completely forgot! Happy New Year, Steepsterites. Be careful around the fireworks.Fri, 31 Dec 2010 09:42:39 -0500/teas/Pai%20Mu%20Tan/6095-pai-mu-tan?post=61578
Panyong with Paklum from A C Perch'sI'm so tired of drinking nothing but Pickwick or Lipton when I'm at my parent's house. Recently they've had Twinings which is a step up. A very small step, granted, but still up. So for Christmas 2010 I decided to do the sort of thing I hate and give someone else something that _I_ was interested in rather than something _they_ were interested in. I bought some free flow pyramid bags (because I know better than to throw loose tea at someone who only ever have a cup once in a blue moon anyway) from A C Perch's, stuffed as many as I could fit inside a 250g tin from same and wrapped it for her. In my defence it wasn't her only present, I also got her something from the Body Shop. Further in my defence, she had bought me a tea light holder. _AGAIN!_ I counted them all yesterday. I now have in my possession 16 tea light holders. And I never light candles, tea lights or otherwise.
Those bags come in boxes of 30 and I wanted there to be something to choose from, so I got two different boxes. I could have got one of the sampler-y boxes they had with four or five different kinds in it, but I liked these better. This one and the breakfast blend. They're classic basic teas without a ton of flavouring and stuff.
Anyway, that left me with a total of 60 teabags. In case you haven't tried it yourself, that does NOT fit inside a 250g tin. So I stuffed as many in the tin as I could and kept the rest in the boxes and just gave her the tin. If she founded she didn't really like these I saw no reason to saddle her with two whole boxes of them. I've told her I've got the rest and she can have those as well if she wishes.
Which she does, I've decided, because later that Christmas my father asked me, no _ordered_ me to get some tea that I could have at their place because he was tired of giving me that cheap stuff knowing that it was a lower quality than I would ever buy for myself. He despises tea, thinking it one of the most vile substances on the planet next after bananas, but he's into whisky (which I think is absolutely horrid and disgusting) so although neither of us can have the others' drink of interest without pulling faces, we understand each other perfectly.
So I'll bring the rest of these boxes up next time I see them. (I have considered doing something like that before, but never did. I can do it now because I've been told to, but otherwise I was raised to take what I was offered when a guest in someone's house and not make a lot of unnecessary dietary demands. So everybody in my family knows it's not what I drink at home when they give me a cheap teabag because that's what they have, and I never complain about what they give me.)
In the meantime, I've nicked one.
This one I included because I expected it to be similar to my beloved Tan Yang Te Ji (&hearts;), and I stared myself so blind on that fact that it wasn't until I was asked about the Paklum (or in English apparently Packlon) was that I realised that it was a blend. It has white tea in it, supposedly the Paklum. What is Paklum? I've never heard of that before. My initial guess would be some sort of flowery scented something, but I'm assuming it must be the white tea in question. Paklum. News to me. Consulting the literature I can't find anything about it, but according to the Google results I get it is indeed the white element.
Obviously this means that contrary to what I was expecting this is in fact nothing at all like the Tan Yang that I was expecting it to be. The smoky element is very very light, almost non-existant unless you know precisely what to search for, and the Paklum is giving the whole thing a floraly scented note.
It's got a spicy sort of note that I recognise from the Tan Yang, but it's much more obvious here. It's more like the main note of it all here, along with the floral note, and I miss the deeper notes of cocoa and smoke and oranges. It has the grainy rye-y note as it should, but it seems thinner here. A bit diluted.
All in all, it's not a bad blend. I could have lived without the white addition, but it's infinitely better than whatever artificially flavoured stuff Pickwick can come up with. I wouldn't buy huge amounts of this for myself at home, but it's definitely good enough for having when visiting my parents.Sun, 02 Jan 2011 04:17:24 -0500/teas/Panyong%20with%20Paklum/17057-panyong-with-paklum?post=61761
Mangosteen Superfruit Tea from Good Earth TeasI am one lucky Steepsterite!
Yesterday I got the cutest ever card from *Auggy* with a kitty in a christmas tree (she knows me so well!) and today I got another car from *Jillian* with a gift of tea and sweets! Thank you both, you are teh awesome. &hearts;
I'm starting with this one that *Jillian* sent me. She has managed to make a collection here of four things, none of which I have _ever_ in my life tried before. There's a strawberry green among them and while I've had both strawberries and greens before, obviously, I've never had them in combination.
But that one's for later. So yeah, starting with this one. Mangosteen. What the heck is that? I had to look it up and as I suspected might be the case, it doesn't actually have anything at all to do with mangos. I'm feeling a little ambivalent about that, actually, because I'd love to see a mango flavoured white that _works_ some time.
Anyway, mangosteen appears to be something entirely different. I've spent some time now studying the photographs of it on wikipedia with some fascination. To me it looks sort of like alien fruit. I can't tell from the pictures how big the fruit is, but it looks sort of like a cross between an enormous plum and an itty-bitty round aubergine and the actual white fruit inside it looks like a garlic. I've never even heard of it before.
The bag has a funny tropical smell. It's very very aromatic. I've taken it out of the wrapping and put it in the cup while I'm waiting for the water to boil and even when I'm not actually smelling the bag I can still easily detect the aroma of it. It's like a mix of juicy oranges, a little bit of pineapple and some passion fruit. Maybe some lemon or possibly lime also. I'm developing some pretty high expectations of this.
For obvious reasons I can't evaluate this one on how well it's been flavoured, whether or not it tastes synthetic or genuine or how it balances with the tea, because I haven't the foggiest notion of what the fruit is actually supposed to taste like. I can only base my post here on whether or not the tea currently in my cup makes a pleasant initial impression.
After steeping the aroma is totally different. It's got a funny spicy sort of aroma now with a tiny little sharp note to it that rather mysteriously reminds me of fennel. Fennel and indian food. It's still quite fruity underneath that, but a more general tropical sort of aroma rather than the collection of different fruits from before.
Onwards to the flavour. Minus points for having hibiscus in it. It's very very little compared to other places I've been hibiscus-ambushed in the past and on close inspection of the colour it doesn't even have that tell-tale bright red colour that usually turn on the warning bells for me. It is, however, unmistakably hibiscus. At the very bottom of the flavour and the aftertaste especially a faint flavour of something red and metallic.
Most of the flavour is just fruity though. I'm not really picking up any particular white tea notes here, but I'm getting a large mouthful of mango. I thought we'd just established that mangosteen =/= mango? I haven't actually checked the contents of this stuff yet, I'll do that afterwards, but it's definitely mango.
In between the mango flavour and the hibleurghscus there's something else fruity. It's kind of sweet and reminds me a little of persimmons. A bit on the ripe side persimmons, maybe. I like persimmons too.
I don't actually feel like I'm any wiser on the subject of how mangosteens taste, but I do quite like this bag. It's not something that I would find myself addicted to, but it's quite pleasant. If offered it as a choice among other options somewhere I might indeed pick it. If only there hadn't been that hibiscus aspect. Had it been hibiscus-free, I would have added some 5-10 points more. As it is, I can't go any higher than this, and considering the fact that it contains an ingredient that my tastebuds identify primarily as blood-like it's kind of amazing that I feel I can give it even this many points.
Finally, checking the ingredients, my findings are confirmed. Hibiscus and mango. Check. (Also other things that I couldn't identify.)Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:24:53 -0500/teas/Mangosteen%20Superfruit%20Tea/3771-mangosteen-superfruit-tea?post=61960
Watermelon Raspberry Green Tea from 52teasA brand-new bubbly massaging foot bath. (Christmas present from me to myself)
An episode of Red Dwarf.
A cup of this.
Aaaaaaaaaaah!Wed, 05 Jan 2011 08:55:51 -0500/teas/Watermelon%20Raspberry%20Green%20Tea/14854-watermelon-raspberry-green-tea?post=62040
Tippy Yunnan from Nothing But TeaOm nom nom jelly beans! Steepsterites, green tea flavoured jelly beans are _odd!_ Not bad, just... odd. And to me they're rather more like a green oolong than an actual green. But then again there are so many jelly beans that are odd flavoured. I fully admit that I chose some of them because of the flavour striking me as bizarre and american. Butter, for example, has no business being anywhere near popcorn. In Denmark popcorn has salt on them. Just salt. And always salt. (And then the english boyfriend said something about toffee which made me go O.o) Just. Salt. Please.
That said the cappucino flavoured ones and the pink grapefruit flavoured ones are to die for.
I've put the bowl away now, though. I've had quite enough jelly beans now for one day. The great thing about jelly beans is that they're so forcefully flavoured I usually can't eat that many.
I rather need something with a more wholesome flavour in my mouth now and tonight's cup has been chosen specifically for that purpose. I shall enjoy it while wasting some time on silly Facebook games and tv.Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:33:40 -0500/teas/Tippy%20Yunnan/8992-tippy-yunnan?post=62191
Sticky Rice Pu-erh Tuocha from Chicago Tea GardenThis one is actually a really great tea, but it has turned out to not be one that I can't drink very often.
It's very nice and has a very believable flavour that inexplicably suits the tea, but it IS a rather... special flavour. I have found that it requires a specific mind set. Possibly even a specific weather.
Like today where it seems it never really got properly light outside. The entire day seems to have been shrouded in twilight.
I have a bit of a headache, haven't done a single thing of house work all day (which I really ought to!) and am in bad need by now of a cup of tea.
(On the upside Crownprincess Mary gave birth to twins today.)Sat, 08 Jan 2011 09:35:34 -0500/teas/Sticky%20Rice%20Pu-erh%20Tuocha/11660-sticky-rice-pu-erh-tuocha?post=62384
Four Red Fruits from Kusmi TeaTea, meet Keyboard. Keyboard, Tea.
Not as bad as all that though, as it didn't actually get _inside_ the keyboard and was just on places that was easy to wipe clean, but still. Close call there and would have been annoying.
It's funny with this tea. I bought it because the shop didn't have something else that I would actually rather have bought. I can't remember what that was anymore, whether it was while I was searching desperately for a re-stock of the Caramel or if it was something else I was looking for, but whatever it was, I didn't find it and took this one instead as I was dead-set on some Kusmi, damnit!
Turns out it was a wonderful fit for me. Berries almost always are. I raved about it for a while, I seem to recall, and then suddenly the tin just ended up being dormant. Completely dormant. I tried having a cup during that period and honestly wondered what it was about this one that I had found so wonderful.
But now I'm definitely out of that dormant period. I'm growing a bit tired of the Assam (although that is also a rather good tea) that we're having at work these days and have told my colleague with whom I share the tin. She agrees, but when asked what she would like instead, she couldn't really think of something.
Me, I'm contemplating buying a tin of this one for drinking at work. There isn't enough in the one I've got at home that it would be all that useful to bring that in, so I'd probably be better off just getting another tin. Don't know if she would like to share in that one as well, or if it's time that we went our separate tea-ways for a while.
Doing this would mean the final step. There are four of us who drink tea at work. One only wants one, sometimes two cups a day and prefers your average teabags and just brew directly in the cup. One prefers this herbal... _stuff_ that a local tea shop sells, so we've got a thermos for that. And then the two last of us have a thermos for _our_ tea. If we stopped sharing a tin, we would be four tea drinkers with each our private tea and three of us using our own thermos. We might as well start marking the thermoses with names at that point. Yes it's a bit overkill, and believe me, it would be _entirely_ as ridiculous as it sounds. But if that's where our tastebuds takes us, then...
But anyway, yes I'm definitely taking this tin out of hibernation now. It's pleasant and fruity and I'm struck by an overwhelming hazelnutty note in it that I'm sure I ought to have noticed before. It's really very strong. You could have made me believe there were actually nuts in there.
I like that. I find it goes well with the fruit. It keeps the fruit from being too tart and the fruit keeps the hazelnut note from getting too cloying.
However I managed to make it have that hazelnut, I haven't the foggiest. Tue, 11 Jan 2011 12:02:40 -0500/teas/Four%20Red%20Fruits/6533-four-red-fruits?post=62736
Yerba Mate from Adagio TeasEURGH! That was disgusting! I hate cleaning the shower drain, but alas, once in a while it has to be done. Ick ick ick times a thousand.
Obviously to get over an experience such as that something fun and interesting is needed, so why not try one of these things that *Jillian* sent me for christmas?
I've never had mate before... _pokes sample bag_ I understand it's got a sort of smoky kind of flavour, and anybody who's followed me for a while will know that smoky is good and very smoky is very good. However, I'm still a bit scared of this one. Just a little bit. Because it's _different,_ see? It's not real tea, it's a herbal. I'm so very out of my depth here.
My instinct tells me to brew it in exactly the same way I would any black, but my cowardice has taken over the process at this point, so I'm following the instructions on the bag as close as I can. Just this first time anyway. Even though Instinct is shouting at me that it's not nearly enough leaf.
The aroma of the dry leaf reminds me of tobacco and plastic. I can't figure out, however, if that's the actual aroma of the leaf or if it might be the material the bag was made of. I know that bags such as that one to transport tea (or similar) in shouldn't have a smell at all, but it _looks_ like something that might smell like that. So, the Brain tells me, it's probably the actual leaf.
After steeping I'm getting some smoke in the aroma but not a ton of it. There's also some sort of green vegetable thing going on too, like lightly boiled broccoli or spinach. That kind of thing.
The flavour is oddly sweet. Not super smoky but it has a slight hint of smoke to it. Just not nearly as much as I had thought it would have. It's almost minty! I can see why people have been raving about a mate-mint combination.
It does have a rather prickly sort of aspect though, especially on the swallow, along with a note of something that most of all reminds me of pea pods.
Smoke + mint + pea pods... I don't know. I like it, yes, but I don't think it's something I necessarily need to have more of when it's gone. The sample bag I got was big though, so I think this is going to last me for a while.
Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:36:22 -0500/teas/Yerba%20Mate/15498-yerba-mate?post=62831
Naked Strawberry Green Tea from Fully Loaded TeaWell. It would appear that my Kusmi package in Limbo is definitely lost for good. The danish post people have given up finding it (I filled out a form for them to search for it) and are now recommending that I contact Kusmi and have them start a search from that end. In spite of the fact that I explained very carefully how the package had been delivered to a package pick up place in Copenhagen by mistake and had become lost while being forwarded from Copenhagen to the place where I actually live. So I'm not sure what they think Kusmi will be able to do about it in France! Especially considering that the tracking number from their end says 'Delivered' as of the mis-delivery in Copenhagen by people who can't apparently read numbers OR city names... (seriously, it's not even _close!!!)_
At any rate, I think we can definitely say by now that that particular package is NOT going to show up. I shall notify Kusmi of all this, of course, and if they want to start a search from their or if they can't help me otherwise, I don't really care at this point. I've lost two packages at the same time this winter and it's only a stroke of luck that one of them wasn't the boyfriend's christmas present. I've run out of patience with this now and I'll just go and buy the things that I wanted that I can get at the shop I discovered recently where they have a big selection. They've got almost all of the things I had tried ordering from France. I'm NOT, however, saying I wouldn't shop at Kusmi's site again though. It's not their fault the danish postal workers are apparently useless and careless.
Just... I'll make those purchases next month, I think, seeing as I happened to find myself on amazon.co.uk yesterday and _ACCIDENTALLY_ did Something Expensive...
Obviously this development (although not one that was at all unexpected) leaves me in some bad need of comfort, so I'm turning towards the third of the four things *Jillian* gifted me with for christmas. I'm actually combining two purposes here. One, of course, is to try out the tea that *Jillian* sent me, the other to see if green with strawberry is something I want to try from Kusmi when I stock up on that next month anyway. (I shall be doing Something Expensive!)
I rather like strawberry in tea, but I've only had it as blacks. It's a little hard for me off the top of my head to imagine strawberry in green. Odd really, because I have no trouble with other fruits that I can think of at the moment. Just strawberry. I've seen Kusmi tins with strawberry green and I've cast them some long and pondering glances, but I've never actually given it a try. Somehow I've always lost my nerve, either because I had a difficult time imagining it, or because green wasn't at all what I was looking for.
*Jillian* has now facilitated me with a solution to this problem. If I like this bag, I shall give Kusmi a chance. If I don't like it, I can stop considering it. Simple. *Jillian,* it seems, can read my thoughts and guess my needs. That would be quite a feat even if she _didn't_ live on the opposite side of the planet.
So I've made me a cup of this now, and the aroma is a bit funny. It's very fruity sweet and the green underneath is somehow only making it more so. It doesn't give it any counter-points the way a black can do, or a dark oolong for that matter. (If any of those I shared it with still have something left of the raspberry oolong, go take a sniff at those leaves. I think you'll see what I mean). This is just sweet on sweet which makes it smell rather a bit like strawberry flavoured sweeties. Or bubblegum. Just without being blatantly synthetic.
The flavour is very fruity! It's easy to recognise strawberry here and there are lots of them. Maybe a bit of orange blossom as well, but nothing I would really want to put money on. The strawberries are especially coming out in the first few sips. As the tea cools a little more the green base seems to come out more. Not sure what sort of green it is, but to me it tastes a bit chinese. It's got a yellow sort of flavour (not like yellow tea, which is something entirely different, but like the colour yellow) whereas japanese greens to me tend to be bit more like a darker green coloured flavour. This is kind pale green/yellow-ish in flavour. Somewhat buttery and a little bit grassy, but none of them overwhelming. It's followed by that funny, almost minty aftertaste that I especially got in chinese greens too where the inside of my mouth actually feels a bit chilled.
Yes, a flavour can too have a colour. No, not all flavours have one, but some do.
The initial impression given by the aroma wasn't really all that trust inducing, but I've found that it actually works a lot better in flavour than in aroma. I should have liked to see it in a good japanese sencha, but we can't have everything. As it is, it's actually really very nice, and yes, I _am_ going to try the one from Kusmi.Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:41:11 -0500/teas/Naked%20Strawberry%20Green%20Tea/13095-naked-strawberry-green-tea?post=63071
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringNommm!!! I was just skimming through the posts on my dashboard while eating breakfast and someone used the word 'tangy'.
It was inspiring. Tangy, Tan Yang... I don't really have to elaborate on that, do I?
There's a certain ritual to making this tea. You cannot make a cup of this without first inserting your nose in the tin and sniff deeply. It jsut can't be done.
It's been a little while since I had any of it, and I wonder why. Gosh, this stuff is awesome...Sat, 15 Jan 2011 03:30:52 -0500/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=63241
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringGood afternoon Steepsterites!
These are the same leaves as from this morning and I'm having the second steep now. Sort of.
It's quite immoral of me to do so, very likely outright sacriledge, but I've done it anyway. I only hope those of you who have also tried this gem will forgive me.
I've experimented. This is an awesome tea all by itself with a complicated flavour profile. The sort of thing where you notice a new aspect almost every time you have it. If there is one thing it absolutely does not need it's flavouring.
Nevertheless, in a moment of insanity I added a teaspoon of the Tisano Cacao stuff that *Wombatgirl* sent me earlier. This is either going to work or it's going to completely ruin the Tan Yang.
The idea was to emphasise the natural cocoa notes in the tea, seeing as I'm definitely entitled to something cocoa-y, because I'm celebrating the loss of 1½ kg since wednesday and I'm not about to wreck that with chocolate. (I'm not stupid) Another 1½ kg and we hit the 10 kg total loss that was my goal when I started back in the summer.
Awesome. I am it.
I'm even happier to report that, WRONG AS IT IS, the experiment is working quite wonderfully. It is indeed quite cocoa-y, but those note are still at the base of the tea. On top of it, it's still the same grainy sort of flavour. Maybe even a bit grainier than usual, which is a good thing. The smoky note is not as pronounced anymore though, which is rather a shame. I should have liked to see how smoky and cocoa would play together in equal parts.
It's not _better_ than it was pure, mind you. It's _as good._ Different.
Just one more reason for it to have the full 100 points.Sat, 15 Jan 2011 09:33:15 -0500/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=63248
White Temple tea from A C Perch'sGosh. Seem to have managed to scald these leaves a bit.
The tea is still fairly nice, but there's a certain sharpness and bite to the flavour that wasn't there before. And frankly wasn't supposed to be there either. It's like if you take a sip it's got tiny little needles in it.
I haven't ruined it. It's definitely still drinkable but it's just a little bit off the spot.Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:32:42 -0500/teas/White%20Temple%20tea/6474-white-temple-tea?post=63261
Earl Grey from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaAnd thus we bid His Lordship farewell.Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:12:46 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/8407-earl-grey?post=63372
The Mermaid's Kiss from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaThis poor little tea has been quite forgotten on the bottom of a pile of other A&D tins. Poor tea. :( I've dug it out again, though, and discovered to my surprise that I've only posted about it once.
At the time I described it as good but not hugely memorable. It would appear that I was right when I wrote that, seeing as it has gone completely unnoticed for two months.
So I had a cup last night and I'm having the second steep of those leaves now and I stand by what I said in the first review. It's more oolong than flowers, and I like that, but the flowers give the oolong a sort of fresh lift. The oolong itself is still somewhat straight forwards and with a note of nuts and perhaps a touch of ever so slightly grassy greeness.
It is a rather good cup and this second steep is every bit as flavourful as the first one was last night, so I expect you could really get some mileage out of these leaves. Wed, 19 Jan 2011 08:47:24 -0500/teas/The%20Mermaid's%20Kiss/15405-the-mermaids-kiss?post=63700
Tippy Yunnan from Nothing But TeaThe boyfriend and I went to the rainforest yesterday (http://www.regnskoven.dk/en/frontpage/) and I'm still all exhausted. It did inspire my choice of tea, though, because I've discovered that I associate the idea of Yunnans with that sort of climate and nature. I have no idea what that area of China looks like, but in my head it just makes that connection. This was a pretty new discovery for me, so don't bother asking me what my associations with the Fujian teas or Keemun would be because I haven't the foggiest idea yet. I only discovered it about Yunnans this morning when I thought it seemed appropriate for a post-rainforest visit cup.
Unfortunately I've managed to make it a bit of a weakling cup this morning, which frankly doesn't suit it very well. A large part of the body of the flavour seems to be missing and has just gone watery instead.
The spicy pepper note is intact, though, and it has a sort of hay-ish tint to it as well. The sweet note that it often has also seems to be missing along with the rest of the body, though, and that really is a shame.
It's a good tea, this one. This is just not the most succesful cup I've ever made of it. That's all.Sun, 23 Jan 2011 04:08:52 -0500/teas/Tippy%20Yunnan/8992-tippy-yunnan?post=64117
Vanilla Tea from Whittard of ChelseaDamn my Whittards tins and their bloody similar looking labels! And damn me too for not looking more closely at them.
This wasn't the one I was aiming for. I thought I was taking the English Rose just to check if I might be able to get over the fruity issue of it. It wasn't until after I had added a heaping amount of leaves to the pot, a little extra to get rid of it quicker, that I realised the mistake. I was under the obviously wrong impression at the time that the English Rose was the last Whittard tea I had. (Not sure why I thought that, actually.)
So now I've spent rather more leaf on this cup than I would have had I know which tin I had actually opened.
I've certainly got me a strong and fortifying cup here now. Surprisingly though it's neither astringent nor bitter. The flavouring has turned a bit less vanilla-like, but that's okay too, because if it hadn't at this strenght I suspect it would have been unbearably sweet.
(Also in the ongoing saga of the missing Kusmi package, Kusmi has now also tried to put in a search request for it. And this made Post Danmark send me a form to sign stating that I hadn't received the package. Now why would they do that _now_ when Kusmi put in a search request but _not_ when _I_ did? I'm currently under the impression that Post Danmark isn't really taking search requests for missing packages from the recipient all that seriously...)Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:53:13 -0500/teas/Vanilla%20Tea/5400-vanilla-tea?post=64255
Jackee Muntz from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaWhere are all my Steepsterites at? It seems that there is so little activity these days and so few new posts when I come back. Yes, this from a person who has previously complained about not being able to keep up. Maybe I should have a looksie around and add some more people one of these days.
Anyway, I was in the mood for something caramel-y and since the Kusmi order so infamously disappeared I haven't actually GOT anything caramel-y. Others have, however, successfully found strong caramel notes in this one, so even though I haven't had the pleasure myself, it's still the closest thing to caramel that I've got at the moment. I didn't have that many leaves left, so I'm hoping there were enough to make it a decent cup.
The aroma is quite promising. It has that slightly smoky and quite sweet smell of grain and sugar, although I wouldn't go so far as to call it out-right caramel. The smoky part of the aroma has definitely suffered under the smaller-than-usual amount of leaves, as it is only very vague.
The flavour, unfortunately, is a bit on the weakling and watery side. There's no hints of smoke in it and only vague promises of grain. The smoke can still be coaxed out with excessive slurping but I haven't yet managed to convince the grainy notes to make an appearance with this method. Probably a good thing I'm alone, or all this slurping might annoying to be in the same room with after a while.
The important thing here, however, is not the smoky note.
I shall put in a small break here to let those of you who have followed me for a while pick your chins up from the floor and get yourselves around _that_ statement.
Feeling better? Okay.
The important thing here is the note that comes _after_ the smoky note. The smoke is there at the beginning of the sip. Of the slurp, actually. It fills the mouth and dominates the flavour all the way through to the swallow.
And that's when the important thing happens. It turns all sweet and smooth and almost sparkly. Just for a moment and primarily on the aftertaste. It's not that heavy caramel note of legend, but I think it's something related to it. If I had used twice as much leaf as I did (only had half a decent amount left), I really do think we would have been in business here.
I've rather enjoyed this one, even if the last bit of it has been shelved for a while. I just haven't really felt in the keemun-y grainy mood much lately. Thank you, *Auggy.*Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:41:03 -0500/teas/Jackee%20Muntz/2481-jackee-muntz?post=64375
Bamboo Tea from My Cup of Tea (Montreal)This is another gift from *Jillian* that came with my christmas card. At least I'm pretty sure it was. I think I need to invent some sort of filing system in the Bits'n'Bobs Basket or something to help me keep track of these things.
I've never heard of this before. I would never even for a moment have imagined that such a thing existed, or even that anybody out there would ever think of it.
The leaves appear to be pretty much just small dried bamboo leaves and indeed they aren't fermented at all. Merely withered. You can forget about teaspoons and scoops and whatnot when measuring out an amount. In fact I ignored the concept of measuring entirely and just moved a small handful to the pot. It seemed easier.
They have an interesting aroma when dry. It's not overwhelmingly strong, but it's quite grassy and surprisingly sweet. I have never really made it a habit to go around sniffing at bamboo, but I hadn't expected it to smell like this. I didn't really have any expectations of the aroma, but this still struck me as unexpected.
After steeping it had a very pale colour with some of that radioactive glow-in-the-dark colour that you can also find in a good sencha. I didn't get to get a good look at that though. As it turns out when I removed the strainer, my strainer is in need of some maintenance and so there's a bit of contamination here. (This is a phenomenon (do-doo-dodoodo!) that I've seen before with greens, but have never actually had any effects on flavour that I could tell at all. So nothing serious, other than a few points off in presentation)
The aroma after steeping rather reminds me of that sticky rice pu-erh that *Auggy* shared with me. It's got an uncanny note of rice to it. Rice and newly mowed lawn. The latter isn't really all that strange, is it, considering bamboo is a species of grass.
It tastes rather like the rice pu-erh as well. It's got a rice note and that sweetness from the dry leaves as well. I can only compare it to rice pu-erh weakly brewed and with too much sugar in it. I'm not getting any particular grassy notes out of it in the flavour, though. The flavour is very smooth and there is no hints of anything that might turn into bitterness.
I'm surprising myself by rather liking it. To drink it feels very like your average middle-of-the-road sencha. A bit weaker, perhaps, but very similar. I would prefer a real sencha, but this will do as well.Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:22:00 -0500/teas/Bamboo%20Tea/10861-bamboo-tea?post=64493
Heritage Aijiao from Red Blossom Tea CompanyOmmity nommity nom.
I'm freezing my little butt to pieces and I can't understand where the entire evening went. How can it be twenty to nine already?
Aijiao to the rescue!
That chocolate-y note is super-strong in the aroma today, and the more spicy, wood-y bottom note is almost completely covered by it. It smells like hot chocolate and warm milk and a wee bit of spice.
I could just smell this all day. Or what's left of it, anyway.
Oh gosh, steepsterites, I just took a sip! If I could rhyme I would write an epic poem. Hmmm...
_Ode to Aijiao_
_Oh Aijiao, you are a lovely tea,
come out of my cup and into me._
_I nom your every last drop,
Please leaves, don't ever stop_
_being so awesome and delicious!
It makes me feel quite suspicious_
_that I'll never get over the ginormous loss
when the last of the leaves in the pot I'll toss._
_Your notes of chocolate I will miss
along with aroma of tea-ful bliss._
_Your full-bodied flavour is something to try
and when it is gone I surely will cry._
_I have one round left now, two if I'm lucky,
and will end the Ode here, as my rhyming is sucky._
... No, it really wouldn't work, would it? I'll leave the poetry to those as have the talent and just drink the tea.
Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:40:52 -0500/teas/Heritage%20Aijiao/12154-heritage-aijiao?post=64635
Sencha Yamato from A C Perch'sYesterday we got together with some friends, M&C. For those of you who have been here for a while, these are the same people that we went to visit in Paris last spring. They've moved home to Denmark again now, and M has become interested in green tea. She had bought a sencha from a shop near where she lives, but didn't like it very much. (Apparently the man in the shop was also rather weird. When asked what he would recommend, he said, 'nothing, because taste is individual.' That's... not very helpful.)
Anyway, the boyfriend is quite fond of this sencha so we started out with a cup of that, and M quite liked it and especially the typically sencha radioactive colour. Turns out she didn't know that she wasn't supposed to use boiling water like she normally would (Again, man in shop, when dealing with an obvious newbie, it's a good idea to mention this!) so it had turned all bitter and weird on her.
I would say this one was quite mild. It wasn't brewed by me, however, and that may account for some differences. I wasn't actually looking while it was being prepared, so I don't know for certain, but I have a strong suspicion that the boyfriend and I use very different leaf to water ratios. We definitely use very different steep times. I'm borderline gongfu these days with a LOT of leaf and no more than a minute on the first steep, where he's more traditional in his usage of leaf and typically use about four-five minutes steeping. So yes, I would very likely have prepared it differently.
As it was, however, I found it very mild in flavour. The colour was very clear and glowing in the dark, and the aroma was quite butter-y. The tea itself was super-smooth with hints of dark green but not so much of the spinach and boiled broccoli-ish notes as I have come to associate with Sencha. (I'm actually drinking a Sencha now that *Auggy* shared with me, and I'm having the hardest time not to let that influence my post about this one)
I would have brewed it stronger myself and tried to find some more forcefulness in the flavour. It seemed a little timid and shy to me as it was, but it was an okay tea.Sat, 29 Jan 2011 04:24:05 -0500/teas/Sencha%20Yamato/9911-sencha-yamato?post=64776
Gunpowder from A C Perch'sAnother backlog from last night.
The boyfriend already liked the Sencha and I thought it would be a good idea to also get a chinese green to illustrate the differences between japanses and chinese greens. What could be more classic than a Gunpowder?
M really liked the rolled up glossy looking leaves, but she didn't care much for the tea itself. She thought it had a sort of aftertaste similar to the aftertaste when eating fish. .
For myself, again, a fairly smooth and straight forward tea experience. I don't actually remember a lot about this one any more but was a bit more butter-y in flavour and a bit more semi-salty and colour of the flavour was sort of like the colour of straw. Deep yellow brew, though.
This is also the first proper quality FRESH Gunpowder that I've had in years. I searched really really hard, high and low, and I could not find even the vaguest hint of a smoky note. Gunpowder is not a smoky tea. I don't care what you say, it just isn't.
Like M, I preferred the Sencha, although both were pleasant teas.Sat, 29 Jan 2011 04:45:26 -0500/teas/Gunpowder/17733-gunpowder?post=64777
Pu Ehr Orange (EP08) from Nothing But TeaI was on greens and flavoured white all day yesterday but today I wanted something rather more hale and hearty. I had a small discussion with myself whether to choose this one or the equally wonderful Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpring. Ippy-dippy ended up settling the issue.
I'm running a bit low on this one now actually. I have plans to make some Kusmi purchases in replacement for the package that disappeared once I get paid, but I'll have to see if I can make room in the budget for a Nothing But Tea order as well, I think. I was looking through their remodelled webshop yesterday and discovered that I can keep a wishlist there. Let's just say that it would have been easier with an 'add all' button and then weed out the things I didn't want later...
But this orange pu-erh is definitely something that I'll have to re-stock. It's one of those things that I must have in the cupboard at all times, even if weeks go by sometimes when I don't drink it. I haven't actually defined an entire Standard Panel of stuff I'll always have around, but this one is definitely on it. It's my perfect orange tea.
I find that oranges and pu-erh are flavours that go really well together. Mind you, this is a cooked one. I'm far less certain it would work as well with a raw. But then again, I don't really care much for the raw ones anyway, so that's not really my problem.
I've brewed myself a strong cup today, so it's very earthy and dusty in flavour. The orange is strong, sort of enveloping the pu-erh flavour without taking over. It's sort of like each sip is a bubble that tastes like oranges, and all the pu-erh flavour is on the inside of the bubble. And then it bursts. The aftertaste is long and orange-y and it puts that funny fuzzy feeling on the tongue the same as eating a really good and sweet orange does as well. It's not astringency at all, but it's vaguely similar to that sensation.
The best thing about it, however, is that it doesn't taste in the least bit synthetic. Not even a little bit. It's proper fruit and there is a lot of it.
(I've mentioned before how sometimes I associate a flavour with a specific colour. How Senchas tend to be a dark pine green and Chinese green teas all taste somewhat more light-green/yellow-ish. This one is orange-tinted brown for me.)Sun, 30 Jan 2011 06:12:53 -0500/teas/Pu%20Ehr%20Orange%20(EP08)/8973-pu-ehr-orange-ep08?post=64848
Sencha with apple and lemon from UnknownMy boss and I went to 'our' cafe this afternoon after work. We discovered it at some sort of tea-introduction event thing a couple of years ago (where I learned exactly nothing and violently disagreed with other things, although I kept my misgivings to myself). They have a fair few things to choose from, although there is a _shocking_ lack of oolong of any sort. Seriously. Not a one.
But anyway, today my boss opted for coffee, so I took a small pot for myself and I chose a sencha with apple and lemon.
It was... lemon-y. Not very sencha-y and not even slightly apple-y, but definitely lemon-y. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, because it's several hours later now and I wasn't paying _that_ much attention, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting when I chose it.
Drinkable, nice even if you're looking for a straight lemon tea, but ultimately disappointing when led to believe there would be more to it.Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:10:16 -0500/teas/Sencha%20with%20apple%20and%20lemon/17772-sencha-with-apple-and-lemon?post=64970
Caramel from Kusmi TeaMine.
Mine!
You can't have any! Go'way!
_kisses tin_Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:21:36 -0500/teas/Caramel/5814-caramel?post=65084
Strawberry Green Tea from Kusmi TeaThis is my other Kusmi purchase from yesterday. The caramel being the first one, in case anybody hadn't noticed. *JacquelineM* voiced the optimistic hope that the appearance of the Kusmi caramel post meant that the missing package had shown up, but alas. I have, however, found a place where they have a large selection so I went in and bought the bare necessity (caramel) and a curiousity (this one).
I've actually seen this one a long time ago when I was looking for a strawberry tea. The problem then was that what I wanted was a plain strawberry _black_ and as I had never had a strawberry green before I had the hardest time imagening that. And even so, you can't really make that substitution between blacks and greens. Two entirely different beasts.
But then *Jillian* shared a strawberry green with me from ... uh ... I can't actually remember where it was from now, but I found it surprisingly pleasant and it brought me back to the thought of this one and finally made me want to try it.
The green base is a chinese sencha which seems to be a more or less standard green for flavouring. It seems like that's the one most flavoured greens (that actually reveal the base) are based on. I can't say I have any complaints there. I've come to the conclusion that sencha is my preferred green. I haven't met my perfect plain sencha yet, but we'll get to that later.
This one has a very strong strawberry aroma. It doesn't smell synthetic when you open the tin, it smells very real. It's got that specific sort of tang to the aroma that you also find when you smell a real strawberry and that little bit of astringency when eating one. (That slight astringency manages to surprise me every single time I have fresh strawberries for some reason)
Some of you will perhaps recall a small discussion we had once regarding the flavouring of brands such as Kusmi or Mariage Freres, and how it seemed like they were generally more subtle in their flavouring compared to similarly flavoured brands. We decided it must be a french thing. Do you remember?
The aroma of these leaves, when dry, do NOT have that frenchness. It's 100% strawberry and a lot of it.
After steeping the aroma turns a little more complex. I can actually smell the sencha now, and the strawberry is more subdued. It's still there, but it doesn't scream 'I'M A STRAWBERRY!!!' quite so much as it did before. It smells more like sweeties now than actual fruit.
Curious taste! There's a small disclaimer here in that I didn't really pay attention while steeping so I actually gave it a whole minute rather than just the 30 seconds I usually start a green on. For those who wonder how I can get anything interesting out of such short intervals, I use a lot of leaf.
Anyway, curious. There are strong sencha flavours here. I can find the spinach-y green note and it does indeed come with that same dark pine green colour association that I'm used to from sencha. I wonder if I might not actually rather like this sencha if I had it plain.
But what about the strawberry? It's there. It has just regained that frenchness I mentioned before. It's not overwhelming in the taste, but it's very easy to find. This doesn't just taste like sweeties or 'strawberry tea'. It tastes like tea WITH strawberry, and therein lies an enormous difference.
Imagine the flavour of sencha. Imagine it as a sort of networked structure. A large flat expanse of pine green flavour, but with holes and cavities all over. That's where the strawberry is. At first glance it'll look nice and uniform, but when you look closer, there are bright red dots all over the place. That's what it tastes like.
I'm not sure, however, that this is my perfect strawberry flavoured tea. I think it might be my perfect strawberry _green_ tea, but all in all, I don't really think my perfect strawberry _tea_ isn't black. I really wish Kusmi would provide me with a plain strawberry black.
These days I'm trying to put some thought into my 'standard panel' of teas. The ones that I'll always have in my cupboard. A C Perch's Lapsang Souchon and their raspberry oolong, for example. Kusmi's caramel, Nothing But Tea's orange pu-erh, TeaSpring's Tan Yang Te Ji (&hearts;)... And so on and so forth. In spite of the above, this one might be a candidate there as well, but I haven't decided on that yet. Wed, 02 Feb 2011 06:27:22 -0500/teas/Strawberry%20Green%20Tea/10473-strawberry-green-tea?post=65182
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringVery easy to choose a tea today. I didn't even have to consider the tins first, I just went straight for this one. Another Standard Panel tea. The thing about officially defining my Standard Panel is that now my OCD is taking over and I wonder if I ought to get properly labeled special tins that match for those teas. This is odd because I store my teas in an amalgam of different tins and have actually made an effort to avoid uniformity... But maybe the Standard Panel is different? I don't know, I'm so confused!
Anyway, I seem to have hit the sweet spot on this tea today. Huge amounts of grainy-ness and underlying fruit notes. I think something along the line of grapes. Touch of sweetness on the end of the flavour and a promise of smoke on the second steep.
I think, actually, the second steep of this one is my favourite. It's got all the stuff that first one has, but with a smoky note covering everything. And I loves me some smoky tea!
The funny thing is that while I know recognise this flavour profile in the first steep as Just Right, the first time I had it ever, I was a bit put off by the grain and fruit notes. Obviously I've changed my mind since then.Sat, 05 Feb 2011 05:26:50 -0500/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=65563
Carävan from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaGoodmorning Steepsterites,
This is a super-strength brew this morning. There were really too much leaf left for one pot and in no way enough for two, so I opted for the former. I'd rather have super-strength than weak and watery.
It's been a while since I had it. This particular tin seems to have had a tendency to hide underneath the others and only come out when one is having a closer look at the collection.
Strong and smooth on the aroma, with a fair layer of smoke on top. There's a very fruity-sweet note to it, almost sticky-smelling. Or really, if it wasn't for the smoke it would be sticky smelling. As it is, it's rather rescued by the smoke.
The tea itself doesn't seem, at first sip, to have been too damaged by the +50% leaf. I can definitely tell that it's stronger, but it hasn't transformed into a cupful of tar or similar. It has a side-note of astringency that wasn't really there before and I find it a little distracting, but that's the only real difference I can tell. Or the only difference that I think I can tell, considering it's been a good while since I had it the last time. I do, however, remember the fruity sweetness in combination with the fruit, and those are still there as they should be.
So goodbye, my Caravan. I really enjoyed both tins I've had of you and extend my sincere gratitude to *Auggy* who first shared a sample of it with me, which prompted me to check out whether or not A&D was actually a company within my reach. (They are, obviously)Sun, 06 Feb 2011 03:27:45 -0500/teas/Car%C3%A4van/8408-caravan?post=65666
Raspberry Oolong from A C Perch'sI brought a little of this with me to work to day to share with my boss. As mentioned previously we tend to drink the same tea at work, but lately we've grown a little weary of the Assam we usually have. That's a good tea, actually, but at work we rarely have the time and conditions to pay proper attention to it when brewing. Besides, we thought it would be nice with something to choose from.
I showed her AC Perch's website and asked her to have a look and see what sort of stuff she would like. This was one that caught her eye, and I could happily tell her that it's _awesome!_
Normally, we make a one litre pot and have that during the day. Normally, a little is even discarded at the end of the day. Today, I made a pot of this one for us, and it was empty before noon. That really says a lot, doesn't it?
We have now decided that we shall get a 100g bag to keep at work of this one, and I'll be taken that opportunity to reinforce my own supply as well. It is, after all, another Standard Panel tea.Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:01:34 -0500/teas/Raspberry%20Oolong/4579-raspberry-oolong?post=65917
Four Red Fruits from Kusmi TeaThe other of two teas I brought to work today in the attempt to introduce variety. We had this one after having polished off the pot of raspberry oolong, and my boss preferred the raspberry oolong over this one.
I agree, although the rating differs with only a handful of points.
It was also the very last of the leaves, so now I have to figure out if I want to restock. It doesn't qualify for the Standard Panel, I don't think, but that doesn't mean I might not want to have it some more. I'll have to ponder this for a while and then I think I'll take another 125g tin rather than leaping into the 250g tin. Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:22:01 -0500/teas/Four%20Red%20Fruits/6533-four-red-fruits?post=65921
Heritage Aijiao from Red Blossom Tea CompanyGood morning Steepsterites.
You'll forgive me, I hope, for not being able to come up with a creative post for this one this morning. I've already done the poem and the fairy tale and my idea supply is limited.
I'll just have the tea as it is, then. It was really easy to choose this morning. I knew exactly what I wanted from the moment I got up. The woody and cocoa notes are strong in the aroma this time. That's a bit of a relief, actually, because I was using a little less leaf than I normally would in an attempt to stretch the supply for one more pot.
Unfortunately that does mean that the flavour is a little more watery than usual, but there is still plenty of the cocoa and woody notes in it. It's just not quite as much in the foreground as before. I don't mind that. The flavours are still there, it's just like there's one more step involved in getting to them.
I rather wish I could make this one a Standard Panel tea, but alas, this is not possible. Not unless a miracle happens and Red Blossom Tea Company suddenly becomes something within my reach.
Those of you still missing the Dawn from Simple Leaf (wasn't it called that?), you might want to give this one a poke. I think it's quite similar.Wed, 09 Feb 2011 03:17:51 -0500/teas/Heritage%20Aijiao/12154-heritage-aijiao?post=66009
Black Currant from A C Perch'sBeware. This is going to get long.
I had an AC Perch's order arrive yesterday, but it was mainly a stock-up parcel, so this one was the only new thing in it. (Meanwhile Chi of Tea is tempting me with tempting temptyness, but my bank account insists that I wait until nearer to the end of the month. Oh well.)
To me black currant is a classic flavoured black flavour. When I was a child, my mother would only occasionally have a cup of tea. Mainly if she had asked me dad if she should make so coffee and he hadn't wanted any, she would sometimes make a cup of tea instead. Or sometimes, I could get her to have a cup of tea with me.
That was way before I really started liking it much and I could only have it with milk and sugar, otherwise I didn't like it. But having a cup of tea with my mother made me feel like a big girl, because I was drinking something hot with my mother the way she and my dad had coffee. It was just your average mediocre teabags with artificial flavouring, mostly, and black currant was my mother's preferred flavour. And that's why it has come to represent classicism in tea flavouring for me.
So I was thinking recently-ish that I wanted to try some more berry flavoured stuff and explore that area for a while. Mainly due to the awesome raspberry oolong and the sudden emptying of the 4 Red Fruits tin from Kusmi. I was inspired, I guess. So I looked at what was available at AC Perch's, found three interesting things (strawberry, black currant and blackberry.) and then agonised for a while over where to start.
Due to the above story, that turned out to be black currant.
As usual I'm throwing AC Perch's brewing recommendations over my shoulder and hopping along my own little merry way. There's just no way I'm going to voluntarily steep a black for seven minutes on the first go. It's a lovely company, but their steeping instructions are so not for my particular taste. I consider myself sufficiently experienced to know better at this point.
The aroma is kind of sweet and creamy. There are some fairly large vanilla hints in there which pushes the actual berry (is black currant a true berry?) a little more towards the background. Of course it's a bit difficult to tell for certain at this point, since I got distracted and didn't get around to making aroma notes until after it had cooled some. I find that this always diminishes the aroma to some degree. Anyway, sweet, creamy and with black currant mingled with vanilla notes. It rather smells like dessert.
I wonder what sort of black this is based on. It seems to be a rather hearty one because I'm getting a lot of natural tea flavour out of it, but without any of the hints that would help me make an educated guess as to which part of the world we were talking about. I suspect Indian or Ceylon. Probably a mix. This seems to be fairly common with flavoured blacks.
There is lots and lots of black currant in this. It even has that tart sort of astringency that you get from the fruit. My tongue is feeling all prickly and shrivelly at the moment. It tickles! It's not overwhelmingly fruity, however. You could probably drink an entire cup and not recognise it if you weren't paying attention, but if you do pay attention, it's very easy to find. It's completely interwoven into the tea flavours that it end up feeling like a seamless whole.
The aftertaste has a lot more of that creamy vanilla-ness. It doesn't taste like it has had milk added while you drink it, but the aftertaste does. It adds to the feeling of it being a dessertish sort of tea. I'm reminded a little of the strawberry zabaglione from 52teas. The creamy sweetness of this one is very reminiscent of that, only not quite as obviously custard-y.
It's very nice, this. I'm not sure if I'll be needing more than this one batch in the long run, though. Only time will tell.Sat, 12 Feb 2011 05:19:05 -0500/teas/Black%20Currant/17685-black-currant?post=66332
Caramel from Kusmi TeaI saw a good tip in a comment just now, and it inspired me to make me an evening cup of my Perfect Caramel Tea.
Apparently, those of us who are intrigued by flavoured pu-erhs ought to keep an eye out for sweetly flavoured ones. Like vanilla or caramel. I think that sounds quite interesting.
Now I'm even more tempted by some of the things from Chi of Tea, from whom the tip came, than I was before. (The bank account remains adamant to wait though)Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:15:22 -0500/teas/Caramel/5814-caramel?post=66371
Smoked Lapsang Souchong from TeaSpringThis is a backlog from last night. I had this last night, in spite of the fact that I wasn't really in a Lapsang mood. It was, however, the most Anti-Valentine-y thing I could find in my stock. I don't like Valentine's Day. I didn't like it when I was single, I don't particularly like it now when I'm not. It's a silly imported holiday that shops and what-not are trying to ram down our throats so that they can sell more stuff. We haven't HAD that tradition here at all other than in the last 20 years or so, and the vast majority of danish people either don't bother with it or they only go along with it because their partner likes it. I could give a similar rant on Halloween actually. Children dress up and go around other people's houses begging for candy. We already HAVE that sort of a tradition in february, we do NOT need one more, thank you very much.
Anyway, in order to avoid anything that could even remotely be considered borderline semi-lovey-dovey, anything fruit flavoured, anything floral and anything even remotely delicate in flavour and preparation was beyond reach.
I really do quite like this Lapsang, but regardless of how many points I've felt it was worth and how many points I've decided the Lapsang from AC Perch's is worth, I think I will still stick with Perch's. This time it has nothing really to do with flavour (they're both good), but the Perch's is the one I'm more familiar with. I feel at home in that one. It's more me than this one is.Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:00:18 -0500/teas/Smoked%20Lapsang%20Souchong/11845-smoked-lapsang-souchong?post=66682
The Mermaid's Kiss from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaThis was really rather more what I was in the mood for last night. Magnolia might not be quite as bad as roses or jasmine in the lovey-dovey department, but it was quite bad enough.
I'll have it this evening instead, after some considerable debate with myself about whether I still wanted it or whether I wanted something else entirely now (wouldn't it have been a hilarious stroke of irony if I had found myself in a Lapsang mood?), but I decided I thought I was still inclined towards the magnolia-scented oolong.
You know, every time I have this I get surprised by the magnolia and how it isn't jasmine-y. It's so strong in the aroma I keep expecting to get a mouthful of perfume, but it really is very well behaved in flavour. It's there, but it's not overwhelming. To begin with I thought it merely enhanced the oolongness of the oolong, but now that I've had it a few more times I can pick it out in the flavour more.
I'm not a flower scenting fan at all when it comes to tea, but of the ones I've tried so far, I believe magnolia would be my favourite to scent tea with.Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:02:09 -0500/teas/The%20Mermaid's%20Kiss/15405-the-mermaids-kiss?post=66690
Chun Jian Zang from TeaSpringThis tea is my problem child.
I was in the mood for pu-erh this morning. Unflavoured preferably. I don't really have a lot of that. and this particular tin was just standing around among the others. Mocking me.
I've posted about it twice. One time it was very weak indeed and the other time very strong and bitter with some unpleasant coffee notes. I gave it 20 points, and put the tin away. I just can't really make myself throw it away though, so I'll just have to struggle on through.
I used plenty of leaf this time. As a matter of fact, a third of what I had left. Pre-rinsed it for about 15 seconds and then took the first steep at 45 seconds. It was supposed to be 30 seconds, but I turned my back for a short short moment and... Yeah. Nevermind.
While pouring the first rinse out, it had that very strong and unmistakable smell of wet dog. Wet long-haired dog. After the first real steep, however, the aroma of the cup isn't quite so bad. I'm trying to remember if I did the rinsing step the other two times I had this. I think I must have, but I can't know for certain. Right now, the aroma of the first steep isn't really all that special. It's just standard pu-erh. A bit spicy and a lot earthy.
The flavour definitely still have that coffee note that I've observed before. It's a bit more well-behaved here though. Not over-powering, but still somewhat unpleasant. No bitterness, thank Freyr. (I have decided that being the god of agriculture and such like, Freyr must be the correct one to invoke when it comes to things to eat and drink)
That coffee note is really all there is to it, though. I've managed to make an infinitely better cup than those which resulted in previous posts, but I'm not going to adjust the rating. I have most definitely had better. Much much better. The only thing that has changed with this cup is that there is now some hope of me actually finishing this brick off!Wed, 16 Feb 2011 04:08:54 -0500/teas/Chun%20Jian%20Zang/8713-chun-jian-zang?post=66792
Green Rhubarb Cream from A C Perch'sIt's been a long time since I last had any of this one. Even longer since I posted about it. Smelling the tin now I wonder why.
Oh, the sweet creamy aroma, accentuated by a sharp sting of acidic rhubarb! I can't even begin to describe how awesome these leaves smell. Like a sinfully sweet dessert, but with tartness that makes you want to come back for more. And more. And more. And more. All of this in combination with the standard notes of sencha.
Once it has finished steeping and a cup has been poured, take a moment to revel in this aroma once more. It's even better when it's a 'wet' smell rather than a 'dry' smell. Everything seems to flow together more. (Weirdly though, the aroma of it is sort of purple-ish... Can't really see the connection there, but the old brain is a strange place.)
Sadly though, the flavour of it doesn't really live up to the aroma. It's good and the flavouring is subtle, which I like. But the aroma leads me to believe that there should be so much more. It's an aroma - flavour mismatch as far as the strength is concerned.
As far as the actual _flavour_ however, it's very close to the aroma. (Still somewhat purple-ish). Primarily sencha flavours, but rhubarb as a close second. Then at the bottom of the flavour there's the creamyness along with something every so slightly floral. There are rose petals in the leaves, though, so that's probably them making an appearance.
Very nice, but not one I feel like having often enough that I think it should have more points than this or that I think I might be restocking. It is, however, very much a flavoured green variant that I would encourage people to give a try.Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:16:39 -0500/teas/Green%20Rhubarb%20Cream/13935-green-rhubarb-cream?post=66989
Black Currant from A C Perch'sOh gosh, I am so knackered it's not even funny! We were at my parents' house for the weekend and my mother took us for a walk in Rebild Bakker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebild_National_Park), which, if you can't be bothered to follow the link, is a very hilly place where the Danish-American Society have their 4th of July celebrations. We followed a few trails, got very lost indeed, and generally spent a whole lot of energy struggling up and down snow-covered hills while trying not to break arms and legs. My thigh muscles had definitely started in on the fatty acids before we came out and back to the car!
Anyway, the point of this is I'm dead on my feet and couldn't face tackling all the posts you lot made while I was away. Something heartening was very much required, and I found that I automatically reached for the black currant.
Funny that. I've had it a few times but only posted about it the first time. I didn't think then that it would be one that I would keep in stock, and I'm still don't think it really will be, but for now it's definitely still enough of a novelty in my collection that it continues to hold my interest.
There were the other berry flavoured ones as well, and this one is making me quite excited to try those.
It's very sweet tonight, with a fair sized side note of vanilla. I seem to consistently find that vanilla-ish note, and it makes me wonder if the black currant flavouring has been modified a bit so as not to become overly tart. You know, considering the fact that the black currant really is very strongly present, acidic astringency and all. Sun, 20 Feb 2011 13:08:33 -0500/teas/Black%20Currant/17685-black-currant?post=67388
Orange Chrysanthemum Pu-erh from Chi of TeaSo, Steepsterites! I gave in. I'm a sucker for world wide flat shipping rates, especially when it turns out the actual tea isn't very expensive either. I was somewhat amused at my order number being so low and containing so many 0s too. :)
Obviously I just received my order today and now have a fair selection of Chi of Tea in my cupboard, including even two bonus samples, one of which looks very interesting and the other... well... _pokes it_ we'll see. (If nothing else, it'll be an experience)
I'm starting with this one, because this is the tea that got my attention first. It's no secret that I'm fond of orange flavoured pu-erh and apparently this means that I find an urge to try everything of the sort that becomes available to me. I'm not a great fan of floral things, however, so there is a bit of head-scratching going on over this combination. Not that I find it a bizarre or strange combination at all; in fact it sounds very plausible to me, but I'm sort of wondering what I'll think of it, considering the fact that I'm having expectations of both like and dislike. It feels very strange to actually expect ambivalence.
The aroma of the dry leaves is much sweeter than my NBT orange pu-erh. That one is more zest-y, while this one seems a little more fruity. CoT says that there are mandarine notes in it, and I can definitely agree with that. It does lean more towards mandarine than the NBT does. CoT smells sort of like the girly little sister to the NBT. All sweet and well behaved, with dolls and miniature tea sets.
After steeping, the fruit is taking a little more of a background role, letting the flowers come forward. It's a quite mild aroma, rather discreet, actually. The notes of flowers and the notes of fruit mingle quite well, though, and it smells like a very natural combination at this point. There is a touch of creamyness somewhere in there as well. Just a small bit that makes me think of sweets.
Unfortunately, Little Sister is just a wee bit TOO well behaved, and the first sip put me in mind of a bubble bath. It doesn't actually taste like soap, but it tastes sort of like a bubble bath might smell. (Yes, I know, I have confused senses!) I had rather hoped that she would be the sort to only be well behaved on the outside, while successfully shifting the blame for all her naughty activities away from herself.
In other words, the flavour is quite floral. There's still the fruit in there, definitely discernable as a sweet citrus, but it's so mingled in with the flowers that I can't really pick it out individually. What little I can tell, however, is that it seems to be staying quite firmly in the mandarin camp.
The tea itself shines through wonderfully. It's still mostly scenting and flavouring, but underneath I can really feel that there is pu erh, and not just some random unimportant base tea, because there has to be _something_ to base the flavouring on. I like that. I like that it still feels like I'm actually drinking _tea_ and that's a huge factor in how I form my opinions on flavoured teas, I think. That's probably why I tend to like more subtly flavoured stuff like many of the Kusmis and such.
It's hard to form a conclusion here. I'm generally rather pleased with the way this is flavoured and the way it smells and so on and so forth, but I cannot let go of the bubble bath association. I think I come closest to an actual opinion by saying that I like this, but I like the big brother-y orange pu-erh from NBT better, and I think I might be sticking to that one as my standard orange pu-erh.
(Also, one of these days I'm going to have to agree with myself on how to spell puerh!)Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:51:37 -0500/teas/Orange%20Chrysanthemum%20Pu-erh/17901-orange-chrysanthemum-pu-erh?post=67802
chocolate berries from CustomThis is a backlog from my workday. I was alone with the thermos today, and since we now have a small selection of four teas to choose from, I turned a bit experimental.
1 part raspberry oolong from A. C. Perchs + 1 part ChocoLoco from Luka The m. m.
I've raved about the wonderful raspberry oolong often enought that it ought not need that much further introduction. The ChocoLoco is a rather ancient beast that has lived in my boss' cupboard for some time untouched (but well stored). It's sweet and chocolate-y and quite nice, although not overwhelming, really.
The 50/50 combination of these two was a spur of the moment sort of idea, and I have to say that the aroma of it smelled absolutely heavenly. Three of the others, independently of each other, said it made the room smell like sweeties, although they weren't in agreement on which sort of sweeties.
I was rather looking forward to tasting it, but alas, while it was indeed very nice, it was not really the pairing of berries and chocolate that I had envisaged. The chocolate more or less overpowered the berries, so although the raspberry oolong on its own does have a fairly strong berry flavour, they only came out here and there.
It was very nice, though. I think, if my boss is still ill tomorrow, I'll tinker with the blend a little more. More berry, less chocolate.Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:26:27 -0500/teas/chocolate%20berries/18289-chocolate-berries?post=67986
Vanilla Bean Cream Nilgiri Black Tea from Chi of TeaThis was the second choice for my recent Chi of Tea order. I seem to have an odd relationship with vanilla flavoured teas. I really want to like them. Like, really _really_ want to, but the ones I've tried so far in my life have all been good, but rather on the somewhat too sweet side of things. I want something a little more subtle than that, so apparently this means that I'll be trying out vanilla blacks as I come across them.
The leaves and the tea after steeping smell really nice. Radically different from my vanilla black from Whittards of Chelsea. This is darker, more robust, more powerful. More... everything, really. The Whittards positively pales in comparison. The aroma of this one, though, is strongly vanilla. Sweet and sort of raw in smell. I can actually sort of sense the rubber-y, leather-y texture and smell of a fresh vanilla pod (or as fresh as they can get from a Danish supermarket anyway). There's a funny darkish sweetly side note as well, that is somewhat sharper than the sweet parts of the vanilla aroma. It actually reminds me of a particular sort of licorice sweeties that you can get here in Denmark, in spite of the fact that said sweeties have, to my knowledge, nothing to do with vanilla at all. But they smell exactly like this!
Yes! This is the sort of vanilla tea I want! I'm not getting a mouthful of something super-sweet and relatively artificial; I'm getting a mouthful of _tea_ that tastes like vanilla. It's... It's strongly flavoured, strong enough that I wouldn't be able to point out the origin of the base if I didn't know what it was, but it doesn't overpower the tea. It's more vanilla pod than vanilla-y, really. I think that's what appeals to me so much.
The cream aspect is there as well. Each sip feels much thicker than it is, as if there has actually been added some sort of dairy product to the cup. Which is something I do only very rarely indeed. It doesn't really give a flavour on its own that I can find, but it adds significantly to the bigger picture and the experience of the cup.
This is definitely beating Whittards' vanilla black spectacularly into the ground. I'm very impressed with this, it's a definite re-purchase. And so far, it's also my Perfect Vanilla candidate.Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:37:14 -0500/teas/Vanilla%20Bean%20Cream%20Nilgiri%20Black%20Tea/17881-vanilla-bean-cream-nilgiri-black-tea?post=67998
Buddha Hand from California Tea House*Wombatgirl* sent me a surprise package! How lovely!
In spite of the fact that included a great big pouch of the previously much praised Heritage Aijiao from Red Blossom Tea Company, I'm starting with this one. I don't, at the moment, really have any unflavoured green oolong in the collection. Not that I remember, anyway. There may be something lurking in the Bits'n'Bobs Basket somewhere. I haven't looked.
I'm feeling a wee bit under the weather today, so I'll attempt brevity here. It's probably not going to work, but there you are.
The aroma of this one is a bit sour, but that's not particularly off-putting as it seems to be the norm with these oolongs. It's a bit like lemons but not as sharp.
The flavour has more of those citrus notes, and a buttery sort of undertone. It's very smooth and seems to have been fermented just exactly enough to take it apart from green teas and into oolong territory. It feels very lightly done at first, and then it builds up more and more, making it more and more oolong-y as I drink.
It does, however, lack a certain crispness. It's a little too smooth, feels a little too thick, and I'm missing some sort of sharpness to the flavour. An edge, if you will.
For want of a green type oolong, it's perfectly adequate, though. I like it.Sat, 26 Feb 2011 05:51:50 -0500/teas/Buddha%20Hand/3177-buddha-hand?post=68229
Pina Colada Honeybush from 52teasThis is another one that *Wombatgirl* sent me in my surprise package.
I haven't had honeybush for YEARS! I can't remember what it's supposed to taste like or smell like. I remember that I liked it, though. So now you might be wondering why on earth I've been avoiding it for so many years. The thing is, Steepsterites, when I decided that I liked honeybush... that was when I still liked rooibos as well. And today? I really don't like rooibos. It's not tea, it's not interesting and it tastes like wood. So obviously I developed a certain scepticism towards honeybush as well.
This one was a gift though, and I don't turn down a gifted tea without having tried it first at least once. (Unless it was pure hibiscus or something icky like that) On top of that, this is one that many Steepsterites have raved highly about. I take it a bit like the way to spot an excellent restaurant. 50 million flies can't be wrong.
Let's start with the aroma. Erm... It's odd. Disclaimer, I don't drink a lot of alcohol and I've never in my life had a real pina colada. I have no idea what's in one or what it's supposed to taste like, but based on this I'm guessing it's something involving coconuts and pineapples. So back to the aroma and its oddness, I think it smells like cinnamon and something... wet. I'm not sure what the something is yet, but it's definitely some wet something. Maybe it's chewing gum? I'm leaning a little bit in that direction. Every so often I'm getting an alcoholic note as well. It's not easily discernable and it only really shows up as an association to the champagne sorbet(!!! Apparently the 'classic' sorbet) that my father made last weekend when we visited my parents.
That aroma description doesn't really sound all that flattering, does it? I'm sorry... Yeah, I'm still sceptical too.
...Okay, this is strange. And I don't think it's something for me. Where to begin?
First note I noticed was most likely the honeybush. It has the same sort of wooden flavour that I dislike in rooibos, so I wasn't too pleased with that. It wasn't as offensively spicy as rooibos though, so of the two I guess I'll prefer honeybush. But I would prefer real tea.
Second note was a fruity sweetness. A TON of coconut and some sweet sweet pineapple. I would have liked some role-reversal here, to let the pineapple take center stage and the coconut to remain a little more in the background, but again, I don't know if this way around is actually how a pina colada is supposed to taste. I just happen to like pineapples way better than coconuts.
Third note was alcoholic. Very alcoholic. Now, my alcohol habits are very very simple. I strongly dislike beer (ew) and I don't care for spirits unless it's mixed with such a large quantity of soda or similar that I can't tell it's there. Wine is pretty much the only sort of alcohol I drink, and even then I can only drink one or two glasses before I start finding it a little unpleasant. I don't much like alcohol, I don't much like the way it feels to be drunk, and I don't like the way it feels when alcohol is swallowed. I work in a pathology lab. Alcohol is a chemical, not a beverage.
What this all comes down to, with the third note and the alcoholic feeling of it, is that it's not a flavour. It's just that feeling of heat on the swallow. I don't like that. Not at all. If it hadn't been for that particular note, I would have liked this a whole lot better. I understand, however, that since this is supposed to be a _cocktail_ flavoured tea, and not a fruit flavoured one, and seen in that light, the alcohol note is a very nice detail. I personally just happen to not like it.
The fourth and final note is actually one that I hadn't even found yet when I started writing about the first note, so I'm not sure if I really think it counts as a primary note. It's related to the second note, however, and it has to do with the pineapple. When you eat pineapples, they come with a feeling of a sort of acidic astringency and the build up of an ever so slightly bittersweet aftertaste at the back of the throat. I'm having that same build up sensation with this one. Especially with the back of the throat sensation.
Apart from these four, I just get something sort of chamomile-ish and cinnamon-ish and that... wet _something._
Sorry Frank and *Wombatgirl.* I can probably finish this cup, but I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the pouch. This blend was SO not made with me in mind. Not even slightly.Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:42:53 -0500/teas/Pina%20Colada%20Honeybush/3531-pina-colada-honeybush?post=68270
Double Bergamot Earl Grey from Stash Tea CompanyAnother one that *Wombatgirl* sent me.
Is it just me or does everything smell vaguely of cinnamon or cloves? I took a clean cup, and since this is bagged it can't be from the pot either. Fact is, though, there's a clove-y sort of note in the aroma here.
Oddness aside, it's strong on the bergamot. Very citrus-y. Bergamot has always been a sort of dark, sort of dusty flavour for me and often as a result a wee bit too bitter for me to be an Earl Grey fan. Earl Grey as a flavour just generally doesn't really interest me. Therefore I'm surprised that the bergamot here strikes me as slightly sweet and creamy. I wonder if maybe the pina colada honeybush from yesterday has got stuck in my senses or something.
Flavour-wise, I'm not actually disliking it. It's not one that I would buy for myself, however, and the strong bergamot is striking me as somewhat soapy, but it's not even remotely as incompatible with me as I had feared.
It is somewhat soapy, and somewhat perfume-y, though. I don't think these extra-strongly flavoured are really something for me. I tend to like something more subtle. Anyway, with this one I'm getting some unfortunate associations to the Bouquet of Flowers thing from Kusmi. I can't remember the exact name. It was undrinkable anyway. I think it's the absense of flowers from this one that is making it far more tolerable.
I can actually drink this. I wouldn't say I like it, but I can drink it without paying too much attention to whether I like or dislike it. This, this is Just Tea.
It does get some additional points, though, for being noticeably flavoured with _bergamot_ and not something that just tastes like lemon.Sun, 27 Feb 2011 05:15:08 -0500/teas/Double%20Bergamot%20Earl%20Grey/604-double-bergamot-earl-grey?post=68348
Keemun Superior from Chi of TeaFollowing the success I've had with the two first teas I've tried from Chi of Tea, I've been looking rather forward to this Keemun. It wasn't one that I put a lot of thought into when I ordered it, it was just a Keemun and it seemed unnatural not to try it out as it's a type I'm coming to enjoy more and more. (Strangely, I don't feel the same urge to try every single Lapsang that crosses my path in spite of that being another favourite. Maybe it's something to do with already having found my Perfect LS, and so I feel no need to explore further for the time being.)
The leaves, when dry, aren't very loud on the aroma. They have a some smoke to the aroma, but on the whole it's fairly unobtrusive in strength.
After steeping, it's stronger. The smoke note is clear and there's tons of that grain-y sweetness underneath it. Chi of Tea have found notes of plums in it as well, but I can't find those. Completely scrunching my face up in concentration isn't helping.
This is surprisingly strong! Okay, so maybe I used a wee bit more leaf than usual but not that much.
The first thing I notice is the smoky notes. They are loud and clear and delightfully prickly.
Second thing is the grain-y note that always reminds me of freshly baked rye bread. I'm coming to associate that particular note quite heavily with Keemuns. I've seen it in other teas as well, but to me it's primarily a Keemun note.
Thirdly, there's the last part of the sip, just when swallowing, and there we do indeed have it. It's not 100% plum to me, but it's definitely something plum-like. How interesting! I would never have thought to find plums in a Keemun before. I'm really very intrigued by this.
I like this! I can't tell if it's my Perfect Keemun or not, because I can't tell them that much apart, but it's definitely something that makes me want to revisit other Keemuns and see if I can find plum-like notes in those as well. If I can, then it's back to square one. If not, this is a definite candidate. It's definitely one that I'm likely to revisit. Sun, 27 Feb 2011 07:44:06 -0500/teas/Keemun%20Superior/18258-keemun-superior?post=68350
Heritage Aijiao from Red Blossom Tea CompanyI emptied the sample tin *Wombatgirl* sent me some months ago, but thanks to her so sweetly thinking of me recently, it's NOT a decupboarding!
I have a whole great big pouch with some 50g of Aijiao in it, and I'm going to ration it heavily. Red Blossom Tea Company is not a vendor that's available to me, so I can't resupply, and even if it was available to me, I seem to recall the price of it being rather steep. Which makes my *Wombatgirl* all that much sweeter, because she's probably thinking of it as being in exchange for the lemon oolong I sent her a batch of earlier. Which is a much cheaper tea than the Aijiao. (If you want more, let me know)
It's probably a mistake that I'm making this tea on a tuesday evening. I should have waited until tomorrow, since wednesday is not a work day for me and I could have had the leaves going all day. But I wanted it _now!_
I've run out of creative ways to praise the wonderful qualities of this tea. I've written fairytales complete with once upon a time and happily ever after, and I've written an ode to it that rhymed and everything. The only thing I can think of that's left, really, is something to do with drawing, and... my capabilities just don't reach that far.
You'll just have to do with me repeating for the sixth time (as this is my sixth post about Aijiao) that if you like a dark, roasted oolong and this Heritage Aijiao is in any way, shape or form available to you, try it. Please. Try it. You won't regret it. I promise you, you won't regret it. And if you find, after having invested in it, you do actually regret having done so, you can give me the rest of the leaves and be pleased about having been so very nice to me. :DTue, 01 Mar 2011 12:14:32 -0500/teas/Heritage%20Aijiao/12154-heritage-aijiao?post=68645
Yunnan from Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine TeaGoodmorning Steepsterites
I'm having the second steep of this this morning, having had the first last night (where it helped me to churn out 700+ words, yay! I know I have other writerly types among my Steepsterites, some published, some just writing for the drawer like me, but 700 words is a LOT for me. As is 500 which was my goal). I didn't pay too much attention to it last night, I just wanted something forceful, sort of, while I was writing. If I'm determined to get something done, I need to have a tea that matches.
This morning, however, I'm having a cup full of honey and pricklyness. At the first sip I get a whole lot of the pepper-y prickly note. I have almost completely decided to give in to it being pepper, primarily, rather than smoke, although I do think there's an undertone of smoke to it.
Once you get past the prickly pepperness, it's so smooth and sweet as if there's honey in it. It's actually very nice on the second steep. Perhaps it's because I wasn't paying attention to the first steep at all, but right now it seems to me that the second is superior to the first.Sat, 05 Mar 2011 03:56:10 -0500/teas/Yunnan/9310-yunnan?post=69084
Daughter Ring from California Tea HouseI think Steepster is making me sensitive to buzz words. There are certain words that I will never be able to bring myself to use again as the sight of them gives me tics... I just came across a bit of text that combined some of my most hated ones. Ick!
Brand new tea to the rescue! Just one of very many situations where writing a Steepster post totally helps. (In this case it helps by proving to myself and others that the above can easily be avoided)
Anyway, this one was part of my recent gift from *Wombatgirl* and one that she has had some trouble getting anything useful out of. Apparently the problem was that it simply refused to have any sort of strength or flavour at all.
According to instructions one is supposed to use 6-8 of these little rings for a cup and water a little under boiling. I have not followed these instructions. I have in fact used these instructions as a basis for how to NOT follow them.
For one thing I customarily use more than average leaf and shorter than average steeping times, so I counted out ten rings for my one-cup-pot and gave it the usual minute. Secondly 'a little under boiling water' is not something I feel comfortable about pouring on a green tea. That's what I use for most blacks. (Experience have taught me that not quite boiling water brings out the best in some of my favourites) So I wated a little longer before pouring the water into the pot, like I would with any other green tea.
What I got out of this is a very pale cup, but not completely colourless. At first it was sort a slightly orange-y yellow tint to the water, but having stood and developed a bit it's turning more orange.
The aroma of it is rather like the colour. Pale. Mostly it smells like steam, but as with the colour it comes out more after the cup has rested for a moment. I have to say my immediate thought was pu-erh. It has that same kind of livestock quality to it, but obviously it's otherwise not even remotely like pu-erh. It's got a sweetish note and something sort of straw-ish, which doesn't surprise me, considering this is a Yunnan tea.
The flavour is... Um. Uh. _sips_ _slurp_ _sip_ _sip_
MISSING!
Flavour of Daughter Ring from CaliforniaTeaHouse! Last detected leaving the CaliforniaTeaHouse headquarters. Supposedly smooth, fresh and high aroma.
Reward: Five biscuits.
I'll have to experiment some more with this, I think. At the moment I can't give it any points, because apart from warm water, I haven't a clue what it tastes like.Sat, 05 Mar 2011 11:31:46 -0500/teas/Daughter%20Ring/3156-daughter-ring?post=69103
Yunnan Pu-Erh from Chi of TeaI probably ought to experiment more with the Daughter Rings and see if I can coax some more flavour, or just _some_ flavour out of subsequent steeps, but honestly, I just wanted something that actually has a flavour in the first place.
So we're staying in the same region although not the same tea type.
This was given to me as one of two free samples in my Chi of Tea order, and one I thought was rather well chosen for me. If I had been paying proper attention to how much I could actually get from Chi of Tea for so little, I might actually have ordered it myself.
The aroma of the dry leaf surprised me. It wasn't just the usual earthy sort of musty notes, there was a surprisingly floral layer on top of it. It made me sniff an extra time, but it really was there. Sort of sweet and sort of floral.
After steeping, however, it smells more... um, normal. Earthy, slight notes of livestock. There's a strong sweetness to it though. It reminds me of the aroma of the Vanilla Nilgiri black, also from Chi of Tea. It sort of hints at vanilla and cream, but not in a way that would make you think either of them are in there. A note of custard, is really what it is. (I like custard!)
Shame it doesn't taste like custard also, but I wasn't really expecting it to either. We can't have everything, can we? Truth be told, I'm not sure I really want a tea to taste like custard when it's unflavoured... Naturally occurring notes of this and that are great, but I don't think it would work with custard.
The taste is more your average standard pu-erh. It's earthy and dark, but while it doesn't have any custard notes, it has retained a note of vanilla which I'm finding to be very pleasant. Come to think of it, wasn't it Chi of Tea that gave me that tip of keeping an eye out for pu-erhs flavoured with sweet things such as vanilla or caramel? I can definitely see the potential of vanilla here!
The flavour here seems a bit watered down and thin, but I was bound by the size of the sample, so I think that's something one can experiment one's way out of.
I'm very pleased with this! Really very pleased indeed. It's not impossible I'll make a purchase of it in the future. For the time being I'm putting it on my shopping list so that I don't forget about it.Sat, 05 Mar 2011 14:21:00 -0500/teas/Yunnan%20Pu-Erh/18015-yunnan-pu-erh?post=69126
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch'sChi of Tea and their coupons are totally leading me astray! Was that a paypal button? Oh OOPS! :D
This is bad, because finances are a wee bit tight this month, but I'm staying within my weekly allowance, so I can justify it to myself like that. And also the fact that I _could_ have placed a twice as large order, but decided to save some of it for later.
Clearly this calls for a cup of tea, something that feels thrifty, which means we're delving into the Standard Panel. Smoky is good. Very smoky is very good. Hello Lapsang!
I've used plenty of leaf this morning. Plenty. Because I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. Luckily my average steep times are so short that it doesn't really seem to have made a difference. It's a little smokier than average but underneath all the smoke there's plenty of the fruity sweetness.
I've had a Lapsang from TeaSpring, which is otherwise a wonderful company, I think, when it comes to chinese teas, and that one didn't really develop that fruit note until the second steep. I think that's why I prefer the Perch's Lapsang over that one. I _like_ that note. And I don't want to wait for a whole new steep to get it. And I definitely don't want to steep twice routinely to get one cup of tea. The super-smokyness of the TeaSpring one has other wonderful qualities, of course, like it's a good one to turn to when in the mood for something seriously smoky, but it's just not quite enough to make up for the subdued sweet note that I would say it was a better Lapsang than this one.
This one is perfectly balanced between smoky notes and substance for me.
(It's significantly cheaper as well, which totally doesn't hurt!)Sun, 06 Mar 2011 03:16:46 -0500/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=69196
Very Berry from Zabar'sMy boyfriend's sister went to New York on holiday in the autumn last year, and she bought two teas for me from Zabar's on Broadway. Nothing else of this brand existed on Steepster and I looked Zabar's website up, but couldn't find any of these two that she bought me. I think maybe they're re-branded or something. The website looks like it's some sort of department store or something? Perhaps New Yorkers among my Steepsterites could enlighten me here.
Anyway, this particular one just says 'loose tea' on the bag and apart from an educated guess about berries, I have no clue what's in it. It doesn't look like there is actual tea in it, but there are single bits here and there that look like they _might_ be tea leaves. Other than that I can see dried berries and plenty of orange peel and there's a spicy aroma to it. It's a christmas-y smell. Cinnamon, I think. Perhaps cloves. definitely ginger.
I can't, however, immediately see any red flowers.
This gives me chai thoughts. I'm trying it out now with a normal steep and depending on how that goes, I might try and do it stovetop later on.
I have to say, I'm not generally a fan of things like this, so I'm feeling pretty sceptical and trying to work out how to tell the boyfriend's sister that I didn't like her gift. (At least I've tried the other one she bought me, although I haven't posted about it yet, and that one seemed quite nice)
On pouring it's very suspiciously pink. Oh no. Please just be the dried berries!
The aroma is very spicy now. There's definitely cloves in this, I think.
Okay, here goes.
_grimace_
Okay, it wasn't colour from dried berries. Hibiscus on its own is bad enough. Spiced up hibiscus is not an improvement. Nothing wrecks a blend as completely as hibiscus does.
I can't even taste any single one of the other elements in this stuff. Not becuase they aren't there or the hibiscus is particularly overwhelming. I don't know if it is. It's just that I dislike hibiscus enough to be unable to disregard it when it's there.
I can't drink this. It's free to a good home.Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:58:33 -0500/teas/Very%20Berry/18569-very-berry?post=69606
jasmine oolong from Zabar'sNow, this is more my style. It's the other one of the two the boyfriend's sister bought for me.
Except... well, I'm not much of a floral fan either, but if it's done right I'll drink. If it's done right, I'll even enjoy it. It's just not my own first choice for myself.
We tried out a pot of it on sunday, but I had made it a wee bit too strong then, so I couldn't really tell what I thought of it.
The aroma of the leaves is quite floral, but it's been my experience that this is the norm for jasmine stuff, so I didn't find that too alarming. After steeping it's actually even quite nice.
See, the jasmine scented teas I've had in the past have generally been green teas and then I found the floral aspect to be a bit too much in the forefront. Here, we have an oolong. Green type oolong, but just the small amount of fermentation it's had is enough to complement the jasmine and put a wee bit of a dampener on it.
Yes, I definitely prefer jasmine scented oolong to jasmine scented green! The oolong is a heavier flavoured base for it and it takes a lot of that soap-y perfume-y dusty sort of unpleasantness out of it for me.
The other tea the boyfriend's sister bought for me was totally not to my taste, and although this wasn't something I would have picked for myself, it's defintiely making up for that berry concoction. Very nice.Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:56:32 -0500/teas/jasmine%20oolong/18570-jasmine-oolong?post=69613
Orange Chrysanthemum Pu-erh from Chi of TeaI've quite enjoyed this one, and after tonight it also has the boyfriend stamp of approval.
He notes that the orange aroma is strong in the dry leaves but not so much after steeping, but then it's strong in the flavour instead.
I agree with that, but that's also what I've seen in NBT's orange pu-erh.
The crysanthemum is an extra aspect in this one, obviously, in comparison with NBT's orange pu-erh, and for someone who's not really a great fan of floral scented stuff, it's actually a quite controlled one. It doesn't really cross completely over into soap or perfume-like qualities, which is a good thing. It doesn't get to be too much, but stays at a level where it's an interesting aspect of the flavour.
I still don't know, however, if it's interesting enough, and I'm still leaning heavily towards the flower-less NBT. I can, however, deeply recommend this one, and I can totally see myself getting another round of this one in the future, just for the sake of shaking things up a bit.Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:00:31 -0500/teas/Orange%20Chrysanthemum%20Pu-erh/17901-orange-chrysanthemum-pu-erh?post=70044
English Rose Tea from Whittard of ChelseaI'm trying to get some writing done at the moment. The goal is 500 words total and I'm nearly halfway there, so I'm giving myself a short break. I have joined up with a group of like-minded writerly types elsewhere for a motivational project. 500 words, five days a week, 12 weeks with a weekly check-in. Week 2, doing well so far.
Point is, I was looking for an inspirational tea. It seems I don't currently have one in my collection. At least not one that seemed inspirational today. Next solution then was to find one that might be interesting because it had been untouched for a while, while at the same time one that wasn't so good that I would be distracted by paying attention to it while drinking.
Something out of the ordinary that I didn't have to focus on. I believe that would be this tea, because honestly it's probably the only way I'll ever get through the tin. Then, when I've got my 500 words, I can reward myself with something nommy or something new.
I'm not a fan. I bought it in the UK because the name combined with the fact that I was IN England at the time felt like an obvious combination to the point where it even negated my natural sceptism of floral scented tea. I think I could have dealt with the flowers alone though. The fact that it is also heavily flavoured with jackfruit completely blindsided me. So heavily flavoured actually, that it's really just a jackfruit tea decorated with some rose petals. That's how it seems.
And you know, I've never tasted jackfruit in any other way than this, but I rather think I wouldn't like it much, which totally doesn't help here at all either.
At least it's something to drink while writing. It's better than eating biscuits or crisps or whatever. Health-wise, not flavour-wise.
I'm going to adjust the rating downwards a bit. Again.
Sun, 13 Mar 2011 10:34:15 -0400/teas/English%20Rose%20Tea/3669-english-rose-tea?post=70081
Heritage Aijiao from Red Blossom Tea CompanySeeing as the danish postal "service" (and I use the term loosely) has managed to misplace the FOURTH package since DECEMBER, I believe I'm more than entitled to some favourite tea.
This time the victim was my Chi of Tea order. I think. (Although if it is, that package got here at record speed!) I have complained (again) and have received reply full of apologies and nice words. I'd rather have my package, actually.
I HAS A GRUMPY AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT!Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:13:04 -0400/teas/Heritage%20Aijiao/12154-heritage-aijiao?post=70356
Chocolate Nilgiri Black Tea from Chi of TeaThe latest victim of PostDanmark's incompetence has been located and delivered to my door within half an hour of them calling me to tell me and get my street address. So obviously they're not _completely_ useless, but I'm still not feeling all that inclined towards trust at the moment.
Receiving it was exciting partly because it had actually been found (which I hadn't been 100% convinced that it would) and partly because I simply got taken in by the awesome deal Chi of Tea offered on that day to the point where today I only had a vague recollection of what I had actually bought.
I made sure to make everything ready to brew a cup, pot ready for the insertion of leaves, kettle filled with water to be turned on when the package was here and opened and clean cup with strainer placed on top. All I had to do when it got here was choose one.
So I picked this one. The dry leaf smelled a lot of dark chocolate. Sweet and chocolate-y, not dry cocoa which some brands tend to think would be the same thing. It's the same thing after steeping, only now the aroma of the tea is also shining through. It's a warm, red smell with a strong malty note to it. I haven't paid attention to that note before in other flavoured Nilgiris, but it does remind me somewhat of a sort of mixture between generic Ceylons and the Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpring that I like. One of these days I really ought to go hunting for a plain Nilgiri. It's just not a very common type around these parts.
The flavour is... hard to describe, actually. I'm getting a lot of a sort of nutty note and a sort of wooden note that I also generally see a lot of in the Tan Yang. I'm not really picking up a lot of chocolate, though. I like it when a flavoured tea is subtle in it's flavouring. When you drink some tea and the flavouring pops up on the swallow and the aftertaste. As a sort of extra feature rather than running the whole show. But I'm not even really getting that. It's possible that I've managed to make it too strong, that somehow this particular tea doesn't tolerate as much abuse as other flavoured blacks, but all I'm really getting here is tea. An interesting one, yes, but I was expecting a little more than that.
After several sips, my mouth feels like I've eaten a ton of nuts, and only now at the back of my throat am I beginning to detect some chocolate. It's not really an aftertaste of chocolate, it's more like an aftertaste of the idea of chocolate. I'm sorry, but that's just wee bit _too_ subtle.
I'll have to experiment with it a little and based on that I might add or take away some points, but this is where I'm landing on the first go. This is not in the running for perfect chocolate tea. (In fact, so far my local shop is just about the only place I've found a chocolate flavoured black that hit all my right spots. We have it at work.)Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:16:18 -0400/teas/Chocolate%20Nilgiri%20Black%20Tea/17405-chocolate-nilgiri-black-tea?post=70445
Black Currant Nilgiri from Chi of TeaSeeing as I'm quite enjoying the black currant flavoured black I bought from A. C. Perch's, I found it natural to include the same flavour in my Chi of Tea order. It was actually my intention of trying this one yesterday in celebration of my newest cousin (a girl) being born. Huge age gap there! But in preparation for the upcoming UK holiday, I didn't find the time for it. (Leaving sunday, returning monday next, is out of reach during that time, btw)
So, I'm having it tonight. I do have a few chores to do, but I can manage. I have to manage or I'll go nuts. Therefore the choice of tea to have this evening was incredibly easy to make.
I tried comparing the aroma of the dry leaves between this one and my other black currant one, and I found this one to have a slightly sweeter, slightly floral character, while the Perch's one was more tart. I can't tell, though, if it's a difference in the base tea or if it's a difference in the flavouring. I can't know for certain but I don't think Perch's uses Nilgiri as their base.
Actual side by side comparison of Chi and Perch's will have to wait for another day though, and I'm counting on memory to see me through here.
After steeping there's a slightly tart aroma, almost lemon-like, but although I can't seem to pick out any aroma from the tea base, the fruit notes are surprisingly mild and discreet. It doesn't seem to really be entirely logical, but nevertheless.
It seems like the Perch's one is actually more heavily flavoured than this one. This seems milder, a little more subtle, where Perch's strikes me as average flavour strength. It's definitely berry, but I don't think I'd be able to identify it correctly if I didn't know what it was. I think I would be more inclined to guessing forest fruit. It seems light years away from the Perch's variant, much sweeter and much girlier.
I can't say which of the two I actually prefer. I'm finding it hard to compare them like this. My experiences with them are so different from one another that a direct comparison doesn't really strike me as entirely fair. I do like this a great deal, though. Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:19:47 -0400/teas/Black%20Currant%20Nilgiri/18294-black-currant-nilgiri?post=70620
Lapsang Souchong from Chi of TeaSteepsterites, I am f-f-f-f-f-freezing!
And when chillsome, something smoky is (also) good. What luck that I happened to buy a new one when ordering from Chi of Tea!
LS and smoky flavoured black teas in general, be it actually smoked like LS or an naturally occurring pseudo-smoke like Keemun, are some of my favourites. I've said more than once that 'smoky is good, very smoky is very good' and I stand by that. There is just that little proviso with LS that I can actually get them _too_ smoky. That is, it's not the fact that there's too much of the smoke. It's the other parts of it that there isn't enough of. I like the sweetness of the finish, and I've had an LS where this finishing note didn't really show up at all until the second steep. That's just not ideal for me. The perfect LS _needs_ to have both those aspects.
The aroma of the leaves is definitely smoky, even charcoal-y, and after steeping the tea smells strongly of smoke and ashes. Fresh ashes though. Like the site of a campfire after it has almost completely gone out. (I used to be a girl scout. I know what that smells like. It's significantly better than what your clothes smell like when coming home.)
Taste-wise this is an LS right after my own heart! It's heavy on the smoke, but that sweet note of fruit, almost sugary, is coming through loud and clear. This is pretty much ideal. I've previously named the LS from AC Perch's my standard LS, but I might have to do some more comparison to see how this one holds up, because this is seriously nice.
The thing about LS, for an LS lover, is that it's very easy to describe. Or very difficult, whichever way you look at it. It's certainly un-complicated. At first there's a lot of smoky notes, slight wooden and just a smidge sour. Then, when swallowing, an incredible sweetness blossoms up. Sweet, yet with a certain quality of freshness.
This, however, in no way means that LS, however much of that sweet note it's got, should be mistaken for a sweet tea. It's not actually sweet at all. It's harsh and prickly. The sweetness is merely there in a finishing note, and seeming all the sweeter still because it's contrasted with the smoke.
If you like smokies, if you are an LS lover, do ask this one for a dance. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:45:10 -0400/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/18692-lapsang-souchong?post=70710
Earl Grey Windemere Oolong from Chi of TeaO hai, steepsterites.
This was one of the free samples I got with the first of my Chi of Tea orders, and I've been eyeing it suspiciously ever since.
I'm sceptical about this. I'm not really a great fan of Earl Grey or bergamot in general, and I'm definitely not a fan of Darjeeling either. I find the bergamot flavour easily turns into something that can best be described as perfumed dust. Bit like drinking an attic. As for my Darjeeling reservations, it's the extreme spicyness of it that puts me off. It's too grass-y and prickly for me and my overall impression of a Darjeeling tea most often end up being of something sour.
So I've been avoiding this sample for a while. Today, I saw that I had to have it though, as the corner of the sample bag had started to tear a bit. Very well, let's get it over with.
Let's start with the beginning. Apparently this one is a Darjeeling oolong blend, with bergamot and vanilla cream. That's three things, only one of which I actually find appealing. That said, when smelling the dry leaves, it wasn't completely off-putting. The bergamot was rather strong and dusty and the tea aroma itself didn't show up at all, but there was a touch of vanilla cream underneath all the bergamot dust, which sort of saved the day for me.
After steeping, the bergamot is still strong, but it's a lot less aggressive. The vanilla cream is clearly detectable as well, and the Darjeeling still keeping its nose out of things. Overall, it's a quite sweet smell with aspects of dairy, so it's not unlike something that might have made for an interesting dessert. Like some sort of flavoured panna cotta, for example.
It's at this point that I suddenly remember that at some point I got to try some sort of cream Earl Grey before, having received it in a swap with... with... uh, with... At any rate, I remember now that I quite liked it. Perhaps there's hope for this one yet.
The flavour is definitely Earl Grey. The Darjeeling is still sticking to the background, being little more than just a base to carry the flavouring, but I am getting that sour sort of aftertaste from it. If your average Earl Grey is like drinking an attic, then this is like drinking an attic with milk in it.
To go into a little more detail, there's a lot of creamyness when sipping and a touch of vanilla. On top of that we have the bergamot, most of the dusty flavour of it being weighed down by the cream, so that it's primarily the citrus-y aspects that are coming through.
The oolong it's based on isn't really coming through at all. I'm getting the sour aftertaste that I recognise from Darjeeling teas, but mostly the differences between an Earl Grey based on a black and an Earl Grey based on an oolong are present in absences. The absence of detectable tea base. The absence of notes of astringency or bitterness. The result here is much smoother and much more flavouring focused.
As Earl Greys go, I like it. But I wouldn't go out and invest in it, as it doesn't change my mind on neither Earl Grey nor Darjeeling.
Sat, 19 Mar 2011 04:21:54 -0400/teas/Earl%20Grey%20Windemere%20Oolong/17873-earl-grey-windemere-oolong?post=70769
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringFriends, Romans, Steepsterites!
I have returned from my UK holiday. I have nommed some good food, met with some good people of the boyfriend-relatives category, I have had some dialect-related culture shocks and been introduced to some more intrinsic English things (bread and butter pudding, anyone?)
I have, however, also had a lot of english tea, which when brewed in a traditionally (these days) english way is... Well, a beverage. It's good enough, it serves its purpose and it's better than nothing, but it does not compare to this hoity-toity fancy-pants loose leaf business that I'm used to.
(And also, this time the boyfriend managed to somehow put it in his mother's head that I only wanted Earl Grey. Apparently he's decided it's something that I drink all the time and was genuinely surprised (and contrite) when I informed him that I'm not actually really a fan of bergamot, which often comes across as dusty-flavoured to me. I have some, yes, but only one of those brands, in recent history, I have bought myself, and that was the A&D which wasn't really an option, because it came as part of a set, where I wanted one of the others. Poor boyfriend, he tried so hard and got it so wrong. :(
I didn't want to correct that halfway through the week though, and told him so, as that would just have made his mother feel bad for having consequently given me the one I liked the least all the time. (Even if I strongly suspect the others had BLEEDING LAPSANG!!! _wants! cries!)_ )
I have returned to the nest, however. There will be a trip-report posted elsewhere for those interested in reading about what we did on holiday. It will have pictures! It'll be ready at some time after friday, and I shall drop a link when it is.
Gosh, it's been a long day! I have some chores to do before bedtime. Thankfully I won't have to go to work until Thursday.
Tan Yang Te Ji, favourite tea of ALL TIME YOU GUYS, is just the thing to come home to. I'm on second steep at the moment, the tin is worryingly low, but it's giving me the right sort of energy to go forth and clean the fridge while it's nearly empty anyway.
Hurrah for favourite tea!Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:02:35 -0400/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=71784
Mini Artisan Pu-erh Hearts from Chi of TeaO hai Steepsterites!
I've been busy since coming home from my holiday. Srs bsnss spring cleaning is underway here and I've made great progress. If I'm good and work hard I should be able to finish the last chores this weekend. On top of that, I've also been working on the holiday trip report but I've only written three days so far. Finished estimate currently lies around 3-4000 words or so. I'll be working on that during the weekend as well.
This morning, however, I'm going to give myself a slower start and sit down with a cup of tea that I haven't had before. Sitting down with a cup of tea and taking time to write about it is a treat in itself, as you all well know, but sitting down with a _new_ cup of tea is an entirely different crate of fish.
I chose this one today because... well, I can't tell you yet, but suffice to say there is a reason why I chose this particular one today. When I originally bought it, I chose it because I've previously liked the convenience of touchas and I thought this shape was a new and fun way of doing the same thing. With my second order from Chi of Tea, one of my free samples was also this one, so lucky me has a good supply of it now. :D
I'm not sure exactly how long it steeped, because my way of measuring the time this morning was a little unconventional. Basically, I've had a children's song swimming about in my head for a couple of days, surfacing now and then, and I know four verses of that one is just about a minute. So I sang two verses to myself and decided it was good.
So it must have been around 30-ish seconds, which is half the time I usually do for a black and the standard I usually do for loose pu-erh. I figured I would then pour it into the cup and see how much the heart had unfurled and if it hadn't much, I could pour it back and steep some more. The heart was completely undone, though.
It's quite dark in colour and the aroma is good and full. I like it when you can really smell the tea without having to search through a whole lot of steam to find it. It's a strong aroma and also a bit sweet, slightly honey-ish.
It's a good thing I didn't steep it further, because it really doesn't need it. I seem to have actually managed to hit some magic spot here, where the flavour really unfurls. It's quite smooth in flavour, and there's a lot more of that thick honey note in it. It's a bit earthy in flavour, but not hugely so, and there is a hint of something prickly pepperish which reveals its Yunnan origins. This makes me wonder how it would hold up to the Yunnan pu-erh in a direct comparison. I quite liked the sample I had of that one, enough to go and purchase some more. Right now, of the two, I can't off the top of my head say which one I prefer, but in the future I probably don't need to have the both of them.
I'm very pleased with this one.Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:24:16 -0400/teas/Mini%20Artisan%20Pu-erh%20Hearts/17403-mini-artisan-pu-erh-hearts?post=72304
Mango Rose from Tea GuysGood morning Steepsterites.
I've been looking through the Bits and Bops Basket and found a few things that it's unlikely I'll ever drink, so I'm making a tough decision to just throw them out instead of having them lying around for years and years and years. I have a box full of ancient cheap tea bags which will probably eventually suffer the same fate, but I'll get to those later. I only did the Basket now because I was searching for inspiration for the first pot of the day.
I eventually decided on this one, which I _think_ came from *Wombatgirl.* I opened it up and sniffed the leaves, and decided that this was actually a very weather appropriate choice. Possibly would have been more so yesterday, but it's close enough for jazz.
It smells sweetly floral and fruity. It could easily have been a soap-y smell, but it's not that floral. Something pointing in that direction though. More importantly, it smells girly and extremely summerly. Extremely so. And this is where we get back to the weather, because yesterday was so far the warmest day of the year where I live, with upwards of 20°C outside. (I got my windows washed, yay, with minimal stripage, yay!) I can pick out the fruit and I can recognise it as mango, although it does get a little camuflaged by the floral aspects. If I hadn't known it was mango, I'm not sure I would have been able to guess much more than 'something tropical and fruity'.
After steeping the aroma has completely changed character. We now have something sugary sweet which can best be described as a bubblegum flavour. There are no specific floral notes in the aroma to speak of, and the mango notes have been warped somewhat. Again, however, knowing that they're there helps being able to identify them underneath the funny bubblegum smell. Turning it into a smell of pure mango can be done, but it requires the cup to stand around and develop for a bit and then deep concentration. It turns more mango-y after having rested for a moment and less bubblegum-y.
The flavour is surprisingly floral, considering the fact that it's almost not there at all in the steeped aroma. Again, we haven't quite moved into soap territory, but there is certainly a heavily perfumed aspect to it and it leaves a funny, slightly bitter aftertaste. Like if accidentally got just a tiny amount of shampoo in your mouth while washing your hair, and then you can taste that still for a long time. It's not quite that unpleasant, but it's what it reminds me off.
The fruit that is so heavily present in the aroma is a different matter. It seems to have had business elsewhere because it's not really here right now. There are the shadows of it flitting about in the mouth at first, but the more I sip it, the more it seems to come out. And the more it comes out, the more it reins in the roses. I've only had a few sips at this moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if the mango would become a good deal stronger as the cup develops.
But then again, I do tend to like those subtly flavoured ones. Except I can't really bring myself to call all these roses 'subtle.' They're anything but. I should have liked to have been able to identify the actual tea underneath the flavouring but that doesn't seem to be in the cards for me. (Oh hello! Big pigeon sitting close to my window!)
I'm feeling a little ambivalent about this one. I like the fruit aspects, especially if it develops a little more than it is right now, but it really is very floral. I would have liked it better if it had just been green tea with mango, I think. To me the rose addition seems a bit overkill.Sun, 03 Apr 2011 03:52:47 -0400/teas/Mango%20Rose/12343-mango-rose?post=72378
Green Rhubarb Cream from A C Perch'sToday's tea is an inspired one. I ordered new tea for work the other day, but silly me forgot to consider the delivery address. So now I've got a big package to pick up from the post office on wednesday (having given up on the stupid package pick up place that keeps displacing my parcels), all of which I'll have to carry with me into work on thursday. Instead of just having the silly thing delivered directly to work! Oh well, I can steal a few samples of the leaves, I guess.
Anyway, the reason this one is inspired is because one of the new work teas is one that has nothing in common with this one except the brand, but I'm imagining it to have the same sort of creamy-sweet quality as this one does.
I've even managed to make it a pretty good cup today, which is good seeing as this seems to be one of those teas that I end up neglecting without meaning to. It's so summerly and nice, I really ought to have it more often. It reminds me of visiting the boyfriend's family and having rhubarb crumble with custard. In spite of the fact that the rhubarb is sort of not really coming out clearly in this cup. Which doesn't really add up with it being a pretty good cup today, but there you are. I never claimed to be logical or consistent.
I just really like this. It tastes pink and girly, and I suspect that the boyfriend would dislike it on principle.Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:20:22 -0400/teas/Green%20Rhubarb%20Cream/13935-green-rhubarb-cream?post=72489
Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpringOne of the things I love about the Tan Yang is how resilient it is. This is my third steep of these leaves and they're still not specifically weakened in flavour. A bit, but not enough to be a problem. At this point the flavour lies almost entirely in the aftertaste which is unchanged from previous steeps. Experience has taught me, however, that it shouldn't be taken further than the three steeps as it starts to decline somewhat after that.
I seriously need to place a TeaSpring order soon. I'm running low on this. Isn't it just typical that the Favourite Tea of All Time should be an expensive one? _sigh_ I could have lived without having to buy this regularly at $20 per 100g, but I'm hooked on it now and there's no getting out. Lucky then that it's one of those teas where I rarely want just the one steep.
Especially as I can't conveniently save the leaves for later while having something else. Only one good pot in the right size, you see.
I did see a gorgeous tea for one set in a shop window the other day, though. I wish I knew how it pours. If it pours as beautifully and dripfree as my Roy Kirkham, then I want it desperately. If it doesn't, then... not so much. So I probably won't get it. But it _was_ a pretty set. When I get filthy rich I will enjoy buying pretty things like that just to see if they're useful without regard to the waste of money if they're not.Wed, 06 Apr 2011 02:37:08 -0400/teas/Tan%20Yang%20Te%20Ji/8712-tan-yang-te-ji?post=72642
Late Summer Blend from A C Perch'sThis is one of the new teas for work that I picked up from the post office today. Stupid as I am, I didn't consider that it might be smart to have the parcel shipped directly to the work address. I'll do that the next time. Anyway, I wasn't sure what the boss wanted when I ordered and I couldn't find her, so I just added a few things to the basket that I was interested in because I figured I could just keep them for myself if she wasn't interested. Turns out she was, and when I told her about a black chinese with cranberry and vanilla... You should have seen her face. :D We've both been looking forward to this one since placing the order.
An advantage of having it sent to me at home was that I could take out small samples of each to try at home in a calm environment and post about them. I can't do that at work, really. That's not what I'm there for and I rarely have time to pay that much attention to it, much less post about it. And if anybody thinks that's unfair when the boss is paying for half of it, remember that she works five days a week to my four. She has plenty of time to get ahead. :)
As mentioned, this is a Chinese black (Chinese! Check!) flavoured with cranberries (Berries! Check!) and vanilla (Vanilla! Check!). In no possible way can I imagine this being less than at least very good. (Can you see why I chose the rhubarb creamy green the other day when I really wished I could have tried this one out?)
The dry leaves don't really have much in the way of aroma. It has both vanilla and cranberries easy enough to find, but the base isn't really coming out an enormous lot and on the whole it's not a very strong aroma.
After steeping it's another matter. The berries are really coming out here and the vanilla adds a creamy custardy dessertlike quality to it. More importantly the base tea is shining through. That sweet grainy note that I like is right there on the edge of all the flavouring.
Wow. I _knew_ this would be a good choice! Awesome, I am it!
You know, I may have to get a supply of this for myself as well. It reminds me of the strawberry zabaglione black that 52teas made, only this isn't strawberry. Strawberries seem to be difficult to get right in tea. Often it's more just something vaguely strawberry-ish rather than something that actually tastes like a real strawberry. This doesn't really seem to be the case with the cranberries. They're just _there_ without turning into something vaguely synthetic.
I think it's the combination of these two things that makes me think of the strawberry zabaglione. The vanilla in combination with a fruit results in something incredibly dessert-like and softly sweet. I think I like this one better than the strawberry zabaglione, though. (Sorry, Frank)
It doesn't say which particular chinese black this is based on, but what I can pick up of it through the flavouring strikes me as familiar and I'm having suspicions that my absolute favourite region might be involved here. (I'll bet you lot can't guess where that is!) I can't taste it cleanly enough to be certain though, but I'm curious enough that I might actually write them an email and ask.
This is really very nice, and I suspect the boss will agree. If I'm the one to make the tea tomorrow, I think I'll start our new supply with this one.Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:41:26 -0400/teas/Late%20Summer%20Blend/19117-late-summer-blend?post=72659
Earl Grey Smoky from Kusmi TeaWhat's this? A new Kusmi? Where did that come from, how did this happen?
Well, actually I do know what happened. See, I was walking home from work this afternoon. The distance between the hospital where I work and the train station is short enough that I can conveniently walk and long enough that it actually feels like taking a proper walk to do so. As I was passing this department store, I heard this tiny metallic voice.
"Halp, halp!"
Puzzled, I decided to go and investigate. After all, it sounded like someone was in trouble. I went inside and followed the tinny little voice.
"Halp!" through the perfume and makeup section.
"Halp!" through the ladies' undies and shoes.
"Halp!" past the chocolatiers' counters.
"Halp, halp!" as I finally reached the shelves with the store's Kusmi selection. It was definitely coming from around here. And then I saw it. A 125g tin of smoky earl grey, bouncing up and down among the other tins. "I iz here! I iz here!"
That's the first time a tea tin has ever spoken to me! So I went closer, wondering what was going on here. "Are you talking to me?" I asked it stupidly.
"Da odda tins, dey's meen to me! U haz to buy me!" it begged. "Pwease! I can haz outta here? I gives u mah tea leafs!"
A talking tea tin. I've never seen anything like it. Obviously, I couldn't just leave it there all alone being bullied by the other larger tins. I had to help it out. I'm sure you all would have done the same. So I decided right then and there that I would rescue this poor tin. I would even have done so without the payment of its tea leaves, but it wouldn't hear of it.
Truth be told, I'm not really all that fond of Earl Grey. It's okay if it's all I can get, but it's not something I otherwise seek out. This does have the advantage of also being smoky, which is definitely something I _do_ seek out. Perhaps the smoke might actually save the otherwise not very attractive bergamot for me.
The leaves as well as the steeped tea have a pretty strong aroma or equal parts smoke and bergamot. These two things are actually blended really well, and while I can detect both of them in the aroma, I can pick it apart and say 'this is smoke' or 'this is bergamot'. They really are completely melted together.
I've had this one before, actually, last year when the boyfriend and I were in Paris visiting friends who lived there at the time. I wasn't in a position then to pay that much attention to the cup, though, but I remembered the fact that it existed and I did apparently pay sufficient attention to it to decide to give it a more thorough go later on if ever I got the chance. So I've been on the lookout for it ever since.
The bergamot and the smoke works really well together in the aroma, but in the flavour it comes across as a bit strange. Again I can pick out both flavours, but they're not as well meshed here as in the aroma. I'm put in mind of some sort of smoked citrusfruit if you can imagine that. Bizarre, isn't it?
There is definitely a whole lot of bergamot in this, but it's surprisingly smooth. Usually, with strongly flavoured Earl Greys (and regular ones as well, often) I don't find the bergamot very pleasant. For me bergamot has a tendency to taste extremely dusty. Imagine sweeping a floor that hasn't seen a broom in years. The sort of task where you wear something protective over your clothes and a face mask because it's so incredibly dusty. That's the sort of dust I'm talking about here, and I can't for the life of my understand how anybody can find that so wonderful when there are so many _other better_ teas to choose from.
Smoke on the other hand is right up my alley. Lapsang Souchong is one of my favourites, not just because of the smokyness, but also because of the fruity sweetness that almost always accompanies the smoke. A smoky tea is just not the same without that, and even with the heavy-handed bergamot in this one, the sweet note is actually still there. Amazing, isn't it?
So a combination then of sweetness, bergamot and smoke. It turns into a really rather fresh sort of flavour. Almost sort of pseudo-minty, weirdly, although you will probably relieved that it isn't actually _mint,_ but it sort of leads the mind in the direction of some kind of minty smoke. Oh, I know what it reminds me of! Have you ever had a cup of LS shortly after brushing your teeth? That's the sort of thing.
That didn't make it sound any less bizarre, did it?
It _is_ a bit weird, but surprisingly it's also quite nice. If I'm to drink Earl Grey _this_ is the one I want. My perfect Earl Grey, apparently, is apparently not a real Earl Grey. I can't say that I'm surprised that it would turn out to be a smoky one. Perfect Earl Grey or not, though, it still isn't something I would necessarily choose over my established favourites.
At any rate, drinking this is hardly a chore when combined with the fact that I rescued the little tin from all the other meanie tins.
(I swear that's really what happened! No, really!)Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:09:40 -0400/teas/Earl%20Grey%20Smoky/9092-earl-grey-smoky?post=72797
Travancore BOP from A C Perch'sThis is another one of the new work teas, tested in peace at home with regards to posting about it. I actually had this at work yesterday, but as mentioned, while I'm there I don't have time or opportunity to really fully pay attention to it. I did find it quite pleasant as a while-I-work-tea, though.
I have to say I'm not a fan of this leaf grade. They're torn into such tiny pieces, it's a crying shame to look at. Remember I'm used to large leaf Chinese primarily. I don't know why Indian stuff almost always have to come in such itty-bitty sizes. A lot of the beauty goes missing this way.
Purely aesthetical issues aside, though, they don't have a very strong dry aroma. It's there though and kind of malty. It's much better after steeping, malty and a little grainy as well. It smells very smooth.
Now, _this_ is what I like! I'm not a fan of Indian teas in general. I dislike the prickly grassyness of Darjeelings and Assams tend to develop a funny sort of astringency all too easily. Both get fiendishly bitter when not tended to. I've had Dooars and Sikkim as well, neither of which managed to leave any sort of good impression on me. I think I've had a plain Nilgiri once but wasn't hugely impressed at the time, although if I could find one I'm sure it would grow on my in a quite spectacular way. I seem to recall me disliking it at the time for the same sort of reason that I initially wasn't all that happy about the Tan Yang Te Ji, which later, famously, completely bowled me over &hearts;. This is the first plain Travancore I've had in my life and as it comes from the South West of India, like Nilgiri, I expect there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two.
But this, this is finally an Indian tea that I like. Typical then, that it's one that's virtually unknown in Denmark. A C Perch's, my favourite tea shop in the country, has it though so I'm not complaining. I've got my bases covered. :)
The tea tastes very different from the North Indian types, it has an almost Chinese Fujian-y quality to it. The smoothness and the grainy sort of malty notes that make me think of rye bread.
And a milked note. That's a funny sort of note, that one. It's the one that usually makes me try something with milk in it, because it sort of tastes like there's already a little in there. It's a very small one though, and easily missed. I doubt I'll try this with milk although I'm sure it would hold up to it beautifully, mostly because I just prefer my tea without. I can drink it with, I prefer not to.
It's a large flavour. Rounded and assertive, and I'm not at all suprised to discover that it's also used in A C Perchs' Irish Breakfast blend. It has that breakfast-y sort of flavour.
I don't know if, like the others, it will turn super-bitter over time, though, and I'm not going to find out if I can help it, but it doesn't taste like it would, really. Totally smooth and not a hint of astringency anywhere at all.
I am WAY pleased! Imagine finding an Indian tea that I actually like. And not just I-drink-this-like, but _like_ -like! I'm so glad I allowed myself to get inspired for this one. I think the boss will like it too. (She's had two days off work, so she hasn't been introduced to our new teas yet)Sat, 09 Apr 2011 03:30:35 -0400/teas/Travancore%20BOP/19119-travancore-bop?post=72969
Lapsang Souchong from A C Perch's*Pamela Dax Dean* sent me a box of tea. A _massive_ box of tea. And when I say 'massive' I mean 'enourmous'! Like... _HUGE!_
In other words, I had 68 items in my Steepster cupboard. When I'm done adding all this stuff, I expect it's probably doubled. Or nearly so anyway. I don't think my Bits'n'Bops Basket is big enough anymore, it was fairly full as it was.
So, I'm adding stuff now. Given all this new stuff, I probably ought to have made some of it, but I really need something familiar and fortifying while sorting.
*Disclaimer* At this point let me just say that I officially give up trying to keep track of who sent me what. I know I still have stuff that *Jillian* and *Wombatgirl* specifically sent me and some stuff from some of you others as well, but I don't have the brain capacity to keep track of where this much stuff came from. Forgive me.
Right. Back to work...
*EDIT* This is NOT the TTB.
And that was 57 new items.Sat, 09 Apr 2011 08:25:52 -0400/teas/Lapsang%20Souchong/5803-lapsang-souchong?post=72985
Golden Monkey (No. 510) from SpecialTeasOM NOM NOM NOM FUJIAN TEA!!!
I'm digging into the enormous supply I received yesterday. After I was finished adding everything to the Steepster cupboard I was sort of sated on tea for the rest of the day, even though I'd only had the one cup of Lapsang. It was a bit daunting.
This one isn't quite lucky pick, I just kept taking random stuff out of the B&B (Bits'n'Bops) Basket until I found something that interested me this morning. And no, I didn't know it was a Fujian until after I had put the leaves in the pot and come in here to look it up for posting.
I'm not surprised that it was though, considering the heavy cocoa-y note the dry leaf aroma had. After steeping it's stil there along with the familiar sweet grain note. This store has been closed now, but I suspect I shan't miss this one too much when I've finished with it. I have a strong suspicion that I'm going to find it's very similar to the Tan Yang that I like (&hearts;). Maybe not quite the same, but close enough for jazz.
Ah yes, I was right. It's very grainy and fruity sweet in flavour. Not so heavy on the cocoa here, but it's still discernible. I wonder if, like the Tan Yang, this one will also have a tendnecy towards pseudo-smoky on the second steep?
This is really very good, and if it wasn't for the fact that I had the Tan Yang I'd be crushed that I couldn't have more of it. For those of you who used to drink this one but can't anymore, seriously, consider visiting TeaSpring and giving some thought to the Tan Yang Te Ji.Sun, 10 Apr 2011 02:14:56 -0400/teas/Golden%20Monkey%20(No.%20510)/11569-golden-monkey-no-510?post=73036
Kenilworth from SBS TeasGOSH! The extravagancy of not only being on Steepster at dead-early in the morning before leaving for work, but actually posting something. How decadent.
I'll just make it quick because my first encounter with this one, which is one of the ones out of the enormous box of tea I received this weekend, because it struck me as kind of odd.
It has an extremely fruity sort of flavour. Extremely so. If I didn't know better, I'd think it was flavoured with black currant or similar. It's there in both the aroma and the flavour, but I _have_ to assume that the labels on the bag in which it was sent to me are correct.
Very very strange! Somehow stranger than if it had been a cocoa note, which we're used to seeing around here and there. I seem to recall someone else, I think it was *Teaplz,* having encountered this phenomenon before, and now I'm wondering if perhaps it was the same estate.
This is very fruity indeed, and perhaps I've actually happened across a Ceylon tea here that shows me a little more personality than other Ceylons. Usually with Ceylons the highest degree of interest I can muster is wondering why the tea world stubbornly sticks to calling them Ceylon teas instead of Sri Lanka teas...
I feel a bit like exploring this category again, although right now, with a cupboard that looks like it does, is SO not the time for it.Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:06:09 -0400/teas/Kenilworth/19192-kenilworth?post=73149
Dian Hong Bi Lo Chun, Fall 2008 from Norbu TeaO hai, Steepsterites.
Being chilly is an excellent excuse for trying out new tea, isn't it? We're having true april weather here at the moment. Warm and sunny for two days and then some more cold and hard wind. April is always a bit of a gamble when something out-doors-y is arranged. (Guess what we're doing on saturday...)
This one was a semi-random pick in the sample basket. I knew I wanted either something black or something darkish oolong and something Chinese. As luck would have it, this was the first thing I pulled out, so I stuck with that.
I didn't really get much out of the aroma of the dry leaf, but after steeping it's very smooth and rounded. There's a heavy honey-like sweetness in it, and a thick note of grainy rye bread-ness. The spicyness that one typically finds in Yunnans doesn't seem to be present in the aroma very much. It's there, but it's being completely dominated by the other two. And yet, somehow, the aroma of this one strikes me as fairly typical for the region. Rather sweeter maybe, but otherwise quite recognisable.
It's very sweet in flavour as well. The honey note is strong and the spicy pepper-y note doesn't show up until at the very end of the sip. The note of grain that was present in the aroma hasn't really made it into the flavour.
Again, a typical sort of Yunnan flavour. Honey sweet with prickly spicy pepper and an overall set of flavour characteristics that sort of remind me of horses eating hay. To bring my tendency to associate certain flavours with certain colours, this has a warm, darkish yellow sort of flavour. Almost golden, but not quite.
I'm not sure how to rate this though. Yunnans aren't generally my super-favourite type ever, although I retain a healthy dose of curiosity about them. They're a bit touch and go for me. I either really like it or I find it tolerably good. And any Yunnan can swing back and forth between the two depending on what sort of mood I'm in. So if my average on Yunnan's are generally a bit all over the place, this would be the explanation.Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:55:36 -0400/teas/Dian%20Hong%20Bi%20Lo%20Chun,%20Fall%202008/11721-dian-hong-bi-lo-chun-fall-2008?post=73336
Honey Orchid Black from Golden Moon TeaLowest rating on this one is 84 points! GOSH! This must be some pretty awesome stuff then.
I will admit, it had me at the word 'honey'. If I sweeten my tea at all, which is rare, liquid honey is usually one of my first thoughts. Especially if the tea itself already has a natural honey note to it.
Orchid... Not so much. I don't really do floral. I've found some things in which it works, but I'm quite picky about it and it tends to be a detractor for me.
So I'm left with a cup of equal parts 'Oooh!' and 'Meh...' I wonder if it'll come out neutral, then?
I'm sorry to say it does rather. The aroma is all thick honey and delicate flowers, but the flavour is... well... to be honest, it's a bit weak, really.
It's sort of top-flavoured. Imagine the sip of tea being layered on the tongue. Then the bottom layer is just water, the middle honey and the top tea. And that's it.
Thin and watery, no substance that I can find. Considering the other posts about it, I have to say I'm disappointed. And surprised. How can my experience be so different from theirs? I used plenty of leaf, probably could have steeped it longer, but again, plenty of leaf, so longer than 1 minutes steeping is almost always bound to end badly.
As it cools a bit to a more drinkable temperature and the cup develops a little, the orchid comes out more, and it's reminding me of the floral aspect of the orange pu-erh from Chi of Tea which also has some sort of flower in it. Floral works for me in that one, and now that I've found it here, it also works for me here. Surprisingly, considering my troubles with the other flavours of the blend.
The honey is putting in a proper appearance here as well, and it doesn't feel so layered anymore. Or at least, we're down to two layers. The actual tea itself still keeps to the top layer. It feels a little less weak and thin at this point, but I'm still nowhere near the experience everybody else has had with it.
Further development sees the honey and orchid take a step back again and the tea really come out. It tastes like a Chinese or south Indian type with a wooden note and some strong cocoa as well, but then that may just be the flavouring masking the base. I didn't really find any of these notes in the beginnin when it was so top flavoured.
I don't know... I'm definitely not seeing the same things in this one that others were, so I suppose I'll have to resign myself to being contrary here and providing the lowest yet amount of points for it. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 04:05:15 -0400/teas/Honey%20Orchid%20Black/17258-honey-orchid-black?post=73387
Golden Needle King from Shang TeaThis tea has been extremely carefully picked out. It's a celebration choice. I've had it once before when *Wombatgirl* sent me two whole samples of it. I used one then and saved the other for a special occasion. Then, in the enormous box from *Pamela Dax Dean* there was another sample of it, so now I can have it for the second time and _still_ have one left to save for later. How awesome is that?
The first time I had it was after having reached 50K words on NaNoWriMo, so it was my celebration tea then. It will be my celebration tea again today for having looked at a huge flat with the boyfriend and decided to take it. And it is indeed huge, it's bigger than my parents' house. Used to be a grocery shop so it's got a funny, quirky layout and an almost triangular room. Strangely enough that quirkyness is one of the things about it that really appeals to me. So we accepted it and are awaiting the contract for signing now. YAY!
If that is not call for celebration then I don't know what is! So therefore, very carefully, I picked out something I knew would be fabulous but also in short supply (for me) so that it would feel extra-exotic to drink it.
The aroma of this is just awesome. So very malty sweet and grainy, just exactly that rye bread note that I've come to look for in particular when smelling tea. The same note that these days I seem to find in just about everything. A wee bit of prickly spicyness in it too, which makes me think of fresh pinewood.
Oh gosh, I just got a great big whiff of sweetness on the first sip. Something completely caramel-y sweet. Unfortunately the second sip didn't give me that same note again, so possibly it was a fluke. It did have a cocoa-ish sort of note to it. A clear one, but not very heavy. It works awesomely well with the pine wood-y notes in the flavour. (The colour of this flavour is warm orange. Like the 'meh' face on the Steepster rating bar, only a bit darker)
The first time I had it, I compared it to the beloved Tan Yang Te Ji, only somewhat lighter in flavour. I stand by that comparison today as well. I can see some more differences between the two this time, I think, like for example the pine, but all in all it's got that same sort of 'root'.
I'm a big fan of this one. Go forth and try it out, Steepsterites.Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:45:30 -0400/teas/Golden%20Needle%20King/4264-golden-needle-king?post=73444
White Peony King from Shang TeaGoodmorning Steepsterites.
Because of my current (WOOT!) commute, I have to be up at way early in the morning. Today I've been up an hour earlier than that. I woke up by myself and felt rested, so I decided to get up and poke about on the interwebs for a while instead of trying to fall asleep again, knowing that the next time I woke up I'd probably be feeling less awake. Maybe it's because I was dreaming about the new flat all night. :)
Anyway, I got up and fairly quickly decided to have a cup of tea and very quickly it became clear to me that what I actually felt like having was, uncharacteristically, a white. It's totally the wrong time of day for me to want white, and I don't even want white that often to start with.
There's lots of aroma in this for a white tea. Being used to primarily blacks, I often find whites to be a bit flighty in that department. I really like it when I can smell the cup and sort of fill the nose with aroma. We're not going quite that far with this one, but certainly closer than most. There's a hay-like note to the aroma, sort of spicy and sweet, and there's a robustness underneath it that sort of reminds of the smell of freshly peeled potatoes or carrots or other roots. I had never thought I'd come across that particular thought association in a cup of tea! O.o
There is not only a lot of aroma in this cup, there is a _ton_ of flavour as well. It tastes quite greenish, a bit grassy and spicy and quite floral as well. Not the dusty, soapy sort of floral that actually scented teas tend to have for me, but just something that makes me think of little wildflowers. This tea is like a meadow.
There isn't much of an aftertaste at first, but I suspect it's one of those that will build up as I drink and as the cup develops. I can pick out the traces of that sour note that I usually get from green and white aftertaste. I could really live without that. I think I would almost rather have no aftertaste at all.
There's something fruity in here too. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'm leaning sort of towards apricots or nectarines or that sort of stone fruits. My brain is also shouting something at me to do with blueberries, but I really don't know where it's getting those from. I think those are more of a strange association rather than an actual flavour, but I _am_ finding myself with a sudden wish for a blueberry muffin.
Top notch white, this. I'm very pleased.Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:13:17 -0400/teas/White%20Peony%20King/6264-white-peony-king?post=73491
Ben Shan Oolong from Life In TeacupLucky dip of the morning. I had no real preference for type today so I thought why not? It's a green type oolong and the leaves are a lovely green colour although it could be a bit deeper in hue, I think.
The dry leaf aroma is fresh and strong, but otherwise there isn't really anything about it. It's fairly typical for this type of tea. Same after steeping, really. Not quite as strong as in the dry leaf, but otherwise the notes are unchanged. Fresh, sweet and somewhat grassy.
Flavour, again fairly typical. Sweet and fresh, and I'm getting a rather strong apple note in it. A sweeter apple type, not the tart crispy ones that I tend to prefer for eating. Yes, apples and also a bit of grass, a touch of butter and something vaguely flowery on top.
This is not half bad, but also not super memorable for me. Green type oolongs do tend to flow together somewhat for me. I should practise tasting them more, I suppose.Sun, 17 Apr 2011 03:44:01 -0400/teas/Ben%20Shan%20Oolong/11402-ben-shan-oolong?post=73787
Mauka Oolong from Tea HawaiiAnother luc